I wish I had a cooler story to go along with these stitches. Something that showed my bravery or awesome-ness. But alas, I have to settle with this...
Today was a day full of weird sensations.
I had a huge cyst removed from my neck today. I've had a small one on the right side of my neck since January. I never really thought any of it; I honestly thought it was pesky zit that would never leave. When I returned home from school in April, I had an appointment with my physician to renew my migraine medication. While I was there, I had her check it out. She told me that it was probably just a sebaceous cyst, nothing to worry about unless it started to grow. She didn't think it would grow since it had been the same size for 4-5 months.
Well, Dr. Murphy you were WRONG! About a month ago, my mom kept mentioning that she thought it was growing. "Are you sure it's not growing?" I kind of just tossed it aside. Mom's a worry wart.
Well, Lindsay you were WRONG! About 2 or 3 weeks ago, I looked in the mirror and realized that I had a HUGE lump on the side of my neck. It must have tripled in size, at least. No joke. It was so gross and it hurt like crazy. I kept telling myself that it would return to its original size but that never happened. On Tuesday, I finally went to my physician to have it checked out again.
When we got back to the room, the nurse asked me why I came in today. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail and heard her gasp, "I"m guessing it's for that..." Ya think?
Dr. Murphy took one look at me and said, "Yeah, you're going to have to go see an ENT. I'm not messing with that." She poked at it a bit and told me she thought it was still a sebaceous cyst (which means nothing to worry about) but she wanted an expert to remove it before it was sent to the pathologist. She said that there was "no chance in ____" that she would try to remove it because it was near too many nerves and she wasn't sure how deep it went. She told me that she wouldn't be surprised if the ENT had to put me out when he removed it. Wow, way to freak me out, Dr. Murphy.
So, today I had an appointment with Dr. Hertler (pronounced HURTler..ha...ha), the ENT. Good news, he didn't think it was cancerous and he could remove it right away. So, he gave me a shot of numbing stuff (which was the LONGEST SHOT EVER, I swear the needle was in me for at least 2 minutes). The numbing stuff also had a bit of adrenaline mixed in with it. My heart was racing sooooooooo fast. I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. That freaked me out even more with my heart condition and all. Fortunately, that sensation only lasted a couple minutes. I started feeling really jittery though, like I could not stop bouncing/tapping my feet or messing with my hands. It took awhile for the numbing feeling to come on but once it did, man, my head felt like it was floating. Now, that's a weird sensation, too. WOW.
Dr. Hertler then proceeded to remove the cyst. The drugs did miracles and I could not feel a thing. However, I could hear EVERYTHING. If there's a next time, I'm listening to my ipod. I could hear the little scissors cutting away at my skin and I was freaking out. I started singing hymns in my head to distract me. I tried to recall the GRE vocabulary that I studied the night before. I tried anything to take my mind off the fact that he was cutting me open. I failed miserably and tried so hard to be brave. It's a lot harder when it's being done on you.
I wasn't bothered too much while he stitched me up. Although, I could feel the vibrations when tugged and pulled at the string. Another very weird sensation. He had to do 3 layers of stitches because it ran so deep. Now, I have a nice big scar on my neck. Mom says the stiches are about 3 inches long. Right now my neck is so stiff and sore but I'm relieved to have it out of me! Good riddance, cyst! I'm also grateful that it didn't require anesthesia to remove and that the doctor was able to easily remove it without hitting any of the nerves. And I'm EXTREMELY grateful that it's not cancerous.
Now, I just need the vicodin to finally kick in so I can get some sleep.
OH! And I got to see the little bugger that caused so much pain...it was about the size of a grape! I wish I would have taken a picture of it because it was actually kind of cool looking.
Wow, I didn't intend for this post to be this long. I'll have to print it and stick it in my journal so I don't have to rewrite the whole story in there. :)
My physician also compared me to an 80-year-old man on Tuesday. Thanks for everything, doc. You're the best.
