Infected sweat glands underarm

hi gil, i had a similar infection sometime back.


usually when you have such an infection, the body will thicken the tissue around it to contain the infection. the pus inside (the actual infection) will grow more and will push against the hardened tissue (which is sometimes skin). that's where the pain is coming from - and i agree it can be very painful.


the basic approach most doctors take is to give antibiotics and see the development. if the infection is getting smaller (i.e. the pus inside starts to disappear), over time the body will heal the remaining lump in most cases.


however i had a case where i could not wait for the infection to subside because of the pain. the doctor then punctuated the infection/lump to release the pus. this was very painful itself as it required pressing of the lump but once most of the pus was out, it was A LOT less painful anymore. from there it was again antibiotics with a small lump left over. i have noticed that the lump is getting smaller every week to the point where i hardly can feel it anymore.


the key is really whether the antibiotics work or not. the fact that it blasted and pus doesnt matter too much in my view. the thing that would concern me is that you have taken antibiotics, the infection subsided and then suddenly broke out again.

maybe it could be that you haven't finished the antibiotics course the first time and the bacteria survived your first infection without you noticing it?


in such a case i could understand that the doctor does not want to rely on the antibiotics and wants to remove it surgically to remove the bacteria directly. to be frank, an infection that is not going away through antibiotics or surgery can get very ugly leaving ugly scars.

so your choice might be to have pain and a wound from surgery, or have more pain and wounds from the abscess/infection. i would chose the first.


btw, the actual surgery can be done at a doctors clinic within 1 hour. no need for hospital treatment necessarily.

hi gill, i am not female so not sure i can relate to the 'infection before period' bit ;-)


nevertheless, i would personally not let things be just to wait until it gets infected again.


of course you could try chinese medicine, but as this is a very obvious 'outer' problem, i personally usually prefer western medicine for such cases. only when it's something inside my body (like a hard to define back pain, excessive sweating, etc.) i go for chinese medicine.


i am no doctor so i don't know whether a lump could become cancerous. probably not but your doctor should be able to tell you.

in any case, while a surgery might scare you, don't hesitate to do it when recommended by a doctor (or a second opinion from a second doctor)

well to be honest i haven't found the perfect one yet. i once visited one in wan chai (supposedly famous) but it was a bit so-so.

then i visited one on the street on north point (near provident center PnS) which was alright but also not impressive.


so net-net, i haven't really found one that i like. maybe you can give me some recommendation later? :)