Minor Surgery!

In an earlier post I talked about having to go to the doctor. I went to the dermatologist yesterday to get this bump on my arm looked at.

This bump has been with me for a little over a year, close to two. At first I thought it was an ingrown hair - the skin around it was sore like an ingrown hair - only when I tried to dig it out I just bled. So I let it be and, eventually, it became painless and I kind of forgot about it.

That is, until about a month ago it became a little discolored. So I figured I would have a professional look at it instead of my friends and co-workers whose only comments on it were, "Huh. You should get that checked out."

So I went in today and had the doc take a look at it. She felt around and irony of all ironies guess what she said ... "huh."

Yeah, never the exact phrase you want to hear from a doctor. The befuddled, puzzled sound of "huh." She even said, "I kind of thought I knew what I was going to be dealing with, but this isn't it." She then tells me I could schedule an appointment for "a little surgery" or we could cut it out today. I was thinking, "a little surgery?" This isn't like the parmesan cheese guy at Olive Garden - "Would you like some cheese?" "A little." No, this is surgery. So I opted for the "cut it out today" option. I didn't want to take the chance that I would convince myself not to go back.

So she gives me a local and proceeds to hack into my arm to retrieve the aforementioned "huh" foreign object. After she took it out she told me it may be a foreign body granuloma. Sounds scarier than it is. Basically some type of foreign body (a piece of glass, a grain of sand) entered my body and in response my body formed this "cyst" around it. I guess I'm pretty thankful for that part as I don't think I would be too fond of a shard of glass floating around my body. Anyway, we're both befuddled as to how it got in there, but it's out now. (To be honest I have some theories, as does Wilson, but we won't get into that now.)

I find out in a week what it actually is. In the meantime I have three stitches to tend to and a what I'm hoping will be a boss scar in the making.

Oh and regarding the discoloration, it was more than likely scar tissue due to the size of the cyst.

My biggest trepidation/stressor at this point, however: pulling the band aid - and my arm hair - off every night.