I believe I mentioned that back on our last trip to Edmonton, I'd been disappointed by my doctor's office being closed when I thought I had an appointment? Well, I'd gone to have a cyst removed. (Warning: if you are the easily grossed out type, you might want to skip this. I find this stuff more fascinating than anything else, but I know not everyone shares that opinion!)
I've had this cyst on back of my head for years - when it first showed up, it was quite small and the doctor didn't think it was worth messing with. (I had an epidermal cyst on my back for years, which eventually ruptured and drained on its own, so I didn't worry too much about this one.) However, over the years, it gradually grew, until in the last six months or so, it was getting annoying. It would get bumped against head rests particularly and would be tender. Then one day my dad said, "oh my god, it's big enough to poke out through your hair!"
Yup, time for that puppy to go!
I'd been looking forward to having it go so much, that when my doctor wasn't around, I went home and made my dad sterilize a blade and open it up for me. He expressed a bunch of junk, but it wasn't what I expected. Rather than the white goo that came out of my epidermal cyst, this stuff was dark brown and sort of... crunchy. So I hit the internet and learned that what I likely had was a pilar cyst; rather than a blocked skin pore, it's caused by a block hair follicle, so basically what it's filling up with is the hair strand that can't grow out normally. Being on my scalp, as the cyst lifted the skin away from my head, it cut off the surrounding follicles, hence a balding patch that no one told me about!
He expressed everything he could and covered the whole thing with polysporin, but not having the proper tools or knowing exactly what we were dealing with, of course it didn't work. Opening up the cyst, but leaving the wall in place just stimulated everything, so it filled up again and got quite painful and sore. I was complaining to my friend Kaylene about my doctor not being around for my appointment and she offered to take it out for me. (Kaylene is an anesthesiologist, so she's not normally behind the scalpel, but certainly able to do this for me.)
So last night I drove out to her place and we set up on her deck. (These things can be under a lot of pressure and spray when you open them - ick.) She covered it in pink disinfectant stuff, then re-opened the incision Dad had made. Since he'd cleaned out most of the original material, what we got this time was mostly the white goo that is the result of the body's immune system going into overdrive. She squished as much of that out as she could get, then used a hemostat to grab the cyst wall and start pulling it out. With all the poking it's had lately, it didn't come out in one piece, but she got one big chunk and then fished out four or five more bits.
We had it on hand in case, but ended up doing the whole procedure without anesthetic. The poking and prodding made things a bit tender, but not bad at all. The worst part was getting out the cyst wall around the incision, since it had kind of healed together the cyst with the surrounding tissue, so it took a bit of tugging to get it loose. The cyst wall itself surprised me - it was a lot more durable than I expected; quite thick and sort of rubbery looking.
The incision she made was really small, only about 3-4mm long, so we didn't suture or bandage it - just put on another good layer of polysporin. (There's no point sealing any potential bacteria in with the wound!) To give you an idea of the size and pressure of the thing, there was an indent in my scalp about the size of a quarter, once the cyst was gone. This was a result of the soft tissue over the skull being compressed by the cyst; it should pop back out, now that the pressure is gone. The only information I couldn't find on the awesome internet is whether or not I can expect the hair to grow back in, once everything settles back down? Fortunately, I have thick hair and the spot is smaller without the cyst stretching everything out.
I didn't have the deepest night's sleep, since every time I moved last night, I'd have to wake up enough to find a new position that didn't put pressure on it or pull the hair around it. It's still tender this morning, but that's only to be expected. I washed out the pink stuff this morning and had Stuart check it out. The incision is red, but there's no sign of infection - yeah! We'll keep an eye on it, but I don't anticipate any problems.
And as a great end to the evening, I had a beautiful view on the way home. To the west, the last moments of the sunset. To the south, a huge storm cloud, lit silver by the moon on top and underneath all darkness punctuated by lightening bolts. Stunning!
No comments:
Post a Comment