Are you ready for too much information? If you’re not…get ready. Here it comes.

So, While I was in Europe I developed two very minor looking oddities on my body: A small bump on the top joint of my right middle finger, and a bump on my wrist that made one wrist look clearly unlike the other wrist. After some intense Googling efforts (thanks, Google!) I found out that I had a wart on my hand. Gross, but minor.

Research for the bump on my wrist was a bit more intense. Do you know what comes up on the screen when you Google the term ‘bump on wrist’ ? CANCER. CANCER and lots of scary sounding things like lymphadenopathy and sebaceous cyst.  NEEDLESS TO SAY IT WAS NOT LOOKING GOOD. So, I needed a little bit of time to prepare myself for the awkward conversation with my doctor wherein we discuss exactly which methods of hand removal I should be considering. It took a month, and then the bump starting bulging out at me, and then it grew small arms and a face and started talking to me..so I went to the doctor this morning.

And wouldn’t ya know, I just have a ganglion cyst!

It turns out a ganglion cyst is a collection of jelly-like fluid in a pocket under the skin usually around the hand/wrist area. It’s fairly common. DO YOU KNOW HOW THEY TREAT IT?

Well, it’s actually pretty simple. First, the nice man in the white coat sticks you with an incredibly painful shot to numb your hand. Fun. Then, the same man pulls out the serious needle. You know, the one that is going to SUCK OUT THE JELLY-LIKE FLUID FROM YOUR HAND. And it’s not as quick as it sounds, ya know. He’s gotta jab the extra thick needle in there and move it around to get the fluid out of every little bit of that pocket. It doesn’t hurt..because I was numbed..but I was watching the whole time and that alarm went off in my brain that was telling me that THIS IS NOT NORMAL, NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPENING!

When the doctor was done he showed me all the fluid and stuff that came out of there..and it kinda looked like clear aloe vera gel with some bloody stuff in there.  So cute. Then I got another needle for the cortizone (so that it won’t come back, apparently.) And then the other doctor came in and poked my arm for my last HPV vaccine. For those who are counting, that is four needle pokes.

It was not a good morning.