Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this because I had a pilonidal cyst that I hadn't yet decided to get surgery on. It recurred every few months for about 4 years, and it was the most painful thing I've ever had in my life. When it got super big I couldn't walk, and I'd have to hobble to the emergency room to get it painfully lanced and drained. They have to inject lidocaine directly into it in order to numb it for the lancing and it hurts like you wouldn't believe. I'm getting phantom pain just thinking about it. Docs would prescribe me antibiotics but they didn't work, of course. Finally I decided forget that, I'm not doing it anymore, and started doing some research on some home remedies. I already knew that I could use hot compresses to soak it out, but that took forever. And I gotta tell you - I'm a health sciences doctoral student, and before the incident with the cyst (which is really like a large boil) I was not a fan of home remedies or anything like that. This has made me into a believer. When I came on Amazon to search for some carbolated Vaseline (recommended by the Internet) this came up. I bought this, and some ichthammol ointment. So whenever I would feel the boil beginning to...boil up, I would put a little of this Petro Carbo on it. Usually I'd do that for like 2-3 days, and it would bring it to a head while ALSO numbing the pain. And it seriously worked, because I could tell when I needed to put more on because it would start throbbing again. Nothing has ever numbed the pain of the boil the way this did, except for prescription narcotics. After ~2 days of this I'd use the hot compresses to really bring it up and then put paste of ichthammol on top, take a nap - and bam, just like that, a drained cyst/boil. No ER! But since I HAVE it, I've also used it for other things. I burned my thumb really badly the other day, and after running cool water on it I put a little on my thumb and it helped calm the pain down. I use it on these huge ingrown hairs I get in places and it helps bring those to a head and drain, without the help of hot compresses or ichthammol. And the tin is huge compared to the little you have to use to do anything, so it's a very well spent ten dollars! Even if you don't believe in home remedies - the way I didn't really - give this a try. You'll probably be surprised.