Man left bedridden and needing nine surgeries after being diagnosed with disease caused by an ingrown hair
Dylan Conway was bedridden for over a year while he recovered from the disease
Niamh Shackleton
A man ended up bedridden for over a year with a disease that few people are aware of.
Since the age of 19, Dylan Conway has undergone nine surgeries, and at one stage in his health journey he was so sick that he was bedridden for 14 months.
Dylan was an infantry officer in the Australian army when he started to suffer with debilitating back pain.
He felt 'immense pressure on [his] lower spine' and presumed that after his first operation he'd be able to return to his army training.
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It turned out Dylan had something called pilonidal sinus disease.
Explaining what this is, the 27-year-old, who hails from Queensland, Australia, told ABC Science: "With pilonidal sinus disease, hair will fall into your pants and your buttocks rubbing against itself will actually implant hair into your body.
"If you zoom in on a microscope with the hair, it looks similar to a screw. And eventually the friction from walking will end up embedding that hair follicle into your skin."
Pilonidal sinus disease is often reoccurring. According to the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), over 78 percent of people with the condition have one recurrence, 19.2 percent have two, and 2.6 percent of people experienced three or more recurrences.
With this in mind, Dylan's had a total of nine surgeries as each of his recurrences had to be operated on.
Going on to detail the symptoms he had, Dylan said: "A lot of people will go through this and feel all the symptoms. Tightness in their lower back, pain while sitting down and they won't even realise or think to get it checked and it can end up leading to an infection occurring in the lower back."
Waking up from his first surgery, Dylan said he remembered seeing a 'huge chunk of flesh' had been removed from his lower back.
Speaking about the numerous operations he'd had to endure and how it has affected him, Dylan went on: "Each time I would go in to have another surgery not knowing what I'd wake up to and see.
"I went from being this really confident young man who was very confident in his body image to all of a sudden you can't sit down, you can't walk, I couldn't socialise with my friends. I couldn't see my family, couldn't live life to be completely honest with you."
Chatting in 2022, he said that should he be told he needed more surgery, he thinks he's now 'equipped to deal with it'.
"Most recently I have had the top of my butt completely cut off, and I have a large scar that runs from my lower back all the way down," Dylan continued.
"I'm uncaring about what it looks like, I'm just happy that I can get outside again and start walking and see my friends."