★★★★★
I started with castor oil, which did seem to shrink it a little, but after several days seemed to stop having any further effect. I next tried ichthammol salve, which smelled god-awful to me, but if it made this thing come to a head and be over with, was worth enduring for a few weeks. After several days of keeping it coated, not much was happening so I started taking warm epsom salt baths while continuing with the ichthammol.This did make it slowly start to grow in size, soften up, get irritated, and kind of come to a head. It was not totally effective though. I think the warm baths may have had as much to do with it progressing as the ichthammol, not sure.
But regardless, although this protocol did bring it to a head (I could see a white dot forming) when I went to express it, maybe only a third of the material (white stuff) came out. Huge disappointment. I considered going back to the ichthammol again, but I was starting to suspect that a true boil might be better treated with that stuff. My cyst was perhaps too old and dry to be coaxed out.
I decided to totally switch to another remedy I'd seen hinted at: Lugol's iodine. I've had really good success with other ailments by increasing iodine in my diet (eating dulse flakes) in the last few years, and I know I've been deficient of this essential element in the past. I'd also read that mixing Lugol's with DMSO (50/50) would do a better job of getting it to absorb at the site. I had both ingredients on hand though I'd never used the DMSO before.
Mixed up a few ounces in a small glass container and applied it twice a day for about a week. (I used Crow's 5% iodine and pharmaceutical grade DMSO--both purchased on Amazon.) Right away I could feel something happening, a tingling. Within a day or two, the cyst, which as I mentioned had become larger and inflamed and only partially drained, was much smaller and starting to dry up. It was probably less than ten days before it was entirely healed over.
What really surprised me was that it was completely flat at that point--no sign of a bump--for the first time in maybe ten years. It's now been about three weeks. I stopped applying the iodine/DMSO once it was healed and flat and it so far has not come back at all. If it does, I won't be going back to the ichthammol again. I'll just try the iodine/DMSO.
One tip: I used a Q-tip to apply the solution directly on the cyst and would "paint" it thoroughly for about a minute to get as much of the stuff to absorb as possible. Because of where this thing was, I didn't bother to try to get a band-aid to stay in place and just used panty liners to keep my underwear clean. Once absorbed it didn't seem to be very wet or getting all over the place, so this was more of a precaution than a necessity, but keep in mind iodine does stain clothing. Also, iodine will spread all the way up the Q-tip, which seems to waste it. I wanted to saturate just the end, so I eventually figured out that dropping oil (I used castor oil) onto the part of the cotton about halfway down from the very tip would block the iodine solution from "running, " if that makes sense.
Definitely try this if you have a stubborn old sebaceous cyst. Hopefully you can avoid the attempts to poke at it and get it to come to a head--it really is possible to get even an old cyst to absorb and clear out with your body's help if you use iodine. Good luck!
