Hello,
unfortunatly... You have what is comonly called a "carbunckle". They are basiclly a cyst caused by bacteria. I have suffered for years and I have a home remidy that works quite well.

Clean the area well with alcohal and put any kind of clay mask( that you would use on your face) entirly over the lump, let it dry and cover with a large bandaid. Repeat every day untill it is dried up, usually about 3-4 days. It really works. I would try this before seeing a md.
I have had them lanced at the doctors office and allthough it helped.. It was very painful.
If you start to get them in other spots... You may choose to ask for antibiotics, but they only help temporarily.

Sincerely& sympothetic
tenny

I'll remember that for some of my pts...It's common--i think I would suggest peroxide instead of alcohol since the latter doesn't really kill anything (more surfactant) whereas peroxide kills everything...Use peroxide a lot, it's very effective for any bacteria it can actually touch...
The clay sucks out the insterstitial juices, probably works better than calamine...I wonder if your remedy would work good on shingles and poison ivy, other weeping rashes?

I had a lump similar to where your talking about pretty much on my ass crack. it came and went for years. finally it got bigger and bigger to the point where i couldn't sit or lay on my back. Went to the hospital and the doc lanced it ( very very painful) and then I was scheduled for surgery to have it removed. its called a pilonidial cyst. Its basically an infected in grow hair.

sounds like a cyst to me, could be cause by ingrown hair or just bad luck that the pore got clogged up and infected. from my research many ppl have them for different reasons, i wouldn't recommend popping it on ur own. the cyst is already infected and that's why ur feeling it and the reason why it smelled horrible when it popped. so don't really want to pop it and then not have it clean and get reinfected. i say go to ur doc and have them remove it, depending where it's at or how big it is, u could possibly go into a doc's office have it remove it and be out of there in less than an hour. They'll numb the area and have it pop or cut out, u might even be able to look at it once it's out. After that they'll just stitch it up and tell u to take some pain killers, pretty much how they treat any stitches at that point.

Or u can put a heating pad on the area of the cyst about twice a day, the point is to hopefully bring the temperature up to melt the waxy substance inside. read that it can be done but i'm not sure how effective it is and depends on the type of cyst u have.

My son had a large one in the same place. (He is an over the road trucker.) It was quite large and had to be surgically removed. The doctor did not stich it up. He packed it with gause and let it heal from the inside-out.The gause packing was saturated with sterile water and had to be changed several times a day. They did not stich it because it could have formed a pocket and more infection. Another one formed this Jan/2009. Not as bad but very close to original. The pharmacist recomended using "Black Salve". You put the salve on the carbunckle for a couple of days. You must cover with bandage to keep black off clothing. It draws to a head and bursts and drains on its own. Hope this helps someone.