Surgery with Dr Wadie!

Hi everyone, i just had a cleft lift surgery with Dr Wadie to address my persistent severe pilonidal sinus disease. I want to share my story and offer any advice/answer any questions so i can hopefully help someone the way this community has helped me!

I got my first flare up summer 2025 so about a year ago, i did not have a bad fall nor any prior warning signs of this incoming disease. I just woke up one day and had what i thought was a harmless pimple on the left side of my tail bone, i was wrong, very wrong. The “pimple” grew and eventually popped, drained, and healed. I was relieved until almost 2 months later the pimple reappeared and lasted longer than the first time, more painful too. It wasn’t until October 2025 that i finally decided to see my PCP and they were able to diagnose me with Pilonidal sinus disease. They gave me a referral to a general hospital in my area and blamed the disease on my weight. I was devastated because with just a minute of research on this disease i discovered the only real treatment is some type of surgery.

I went to see two different surgeons but both said the same thing, that i would need to get an extraction done. They explained to me what exactly the procedure involved and how long recovery would be (1-3 months) and they also informed me that the recurrence rate with this procedure was over 50 percent!!! I went home mortified and to make things worse by doing my own research i discovered that most people take a year to heal from this very invasive extraction. Thats when i discovered the cleft lift surgery. The most successful in treating pilonidal disease. I quickly found Dr Wadie and 3 other surgeons in the US that specialize in this procedure but the biggest issue was money.

Insurance did not cover one bit of my surgery, and it came out to a grand total of almost 14k!! this is including the hospital bill, anesthesia, and the surgery itself. But let me say that Dr Wadie was an absolute excellent surgery! He was very patient with me and listened to all my concerns and questions. I am also from out of state and he was very accommodating and helpful! He answers emails quick as well and if you haven’t gotten a reply within 2 days forward the email to him again because he may have not seen it!

The surgery lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, and i was in the recovery room for about 30 minutes before i was released and i had my mom drive us home that same day. I rode in the back of the car face down on my belly and sometimes my side. I had absolutely no pain at all the entire ride home and even now that i’m home and laying in bed i feel perfectly fine!

There is a lot more details to this story but this is the gist of it, i’m glad that i won’t have to worry about this stupid disease, it was ruining my life and my self esteem. I can’t wait to recover and update you all on my journey! please feel free to ask me any questions i am more than happy to help.