2022, The Initial Diagnosis

In 2022 my son was diagnosed with pilonidal disease. After several rounds of antibiotic and lancing we went to a very renowned surgeon in our area who told us that surgery is the answer. My son underwent surgery to remove the diseased tissue. We were told it needed to heal from the inside out so the wound was left open. The wound never healed and the pilonidal cyst not only returned but grew larger/deeper. Weekly visits to the surgeon for cauterization and assessment showed no improvement. I will never forget his words on our final visit. He said to us “well there is nothing more I can do, coming back here won’t do much”, we were given no guidance, just told there was nothing more he could do.

The First Surgery was Planned

My son continued to not only suffer from pain but embarrassment of having a draining, foul smelling wound on his bottom. I am a nurse and was referred by a friend to a surgeon a few cities away from my home. This surgeon told us that she does hundreds of these surgeries and they are easy to repair. A plan was made and my son underwent surgery. After surgery my son’s wound grew and was no longer a pilonidal but a large opening above his tailbone. This surgeon made several follow up appointments with us prior to saying that there was nothing more that she could do but would be willing to go in and remove more tissue.
As a mother, I was crushed, my son is in his early 20’s and is embarrassed to leave the house, the drainage got so bad that he would wear maxi pads in his underwear.

We Found The Sternberg Clinic

I went to work researching all I could about pilonidal disease and came across The Sternberg Clinics website. I immediately had my son fill out the forms, take the photos and send them off to Dr Sternberg. We were elated when 2 hours later we received a message saying that Dr Sternberg was willing to do surgery on my son. Skeptical is an understatement but it was a desperate time and all other health professionals literally gave up. We live quite far from Dr Sternberg’s office but flew out to meet him. He instantly put us all at ease and said he could help.

After surgery and some significant healing time my son is disease free. Through my sons healing process Dr Sternberg made himself available to the wound clinic and to us. Dr Sternberg checked in weekly and would call to advise on improving the treatment of post surgical wounds.

January 2025…..I am typing this with tears in my eyes because he is 100% healed without signs of pilonidal disease. Dr Sternberg messaged this morning to check in on my son.