12 june 2021
It's been a busy few days. Taking a class during the day means that I need to work later to make up for it, and ultimately that means less free time overall. I haven't been writing in my paper journal, either, if that makes you feel any better.
The next section is about gross medical stuff, so be warned.
A few days ago I noticed a painful swelling on my inner thigh. At first I just thought it was a big pimple, but as I felt it I realized it was way too large. It felt like a cluster of rubbery lumps. I was just going to leave it alone for a few days, but a few hours with WebMD and I was sufficiently spooked to make an appointment with a dermatologist. They looked at it and palpated it (ow), and the doc said it probably ought to come out. That meant in-office surgery. I've never had a surgical procedure of that sort while awake before--they numbed the area with lidocaine and went about cutting. It was one of the more surreal things I've ever experienced, lying back fully sapient while watching medical professionals lean over me with surgical tools.
The thing they don't tell you about local anesthetic is that, although you're numb to pain, the surrounding nerves can still experience sensation. Cutting feels something like a small tug and release, over and over again. When they got to the stitches I began to feel the twinge of the needle. Either they got out of the numbed area or it was starting to wear off. That felt strange, too. Not terrible, just utterly foreign.
After it was over, the doctor reassured me that I had done the right thing by coming in, that this wouldn't have gone away on its own. They don't suspect cancer, but it was either a cyst or an infection, and they sent it for biopsy regardless. I sort of wish I'd asked to look at it. I'm glad I didn't watch them doing the actual work, but I'd like to know what dreadful little thing was growing inside me. Alas, I was too shy to ask. I'll probably have a little scar to show for it, right in the area at the very top of the inner thigh.
It is a couple days after now, and I woke up on my own before noon for the first time in a few weeks. I had been unusually fatigued for a while, sleeping some fourteen hours on weekends, when I turn my alarm off. So I wonder if my body had been fighting that thing for a while.
Thus ends my Too Much Information Medical Adventure. Stay tuned for next time, which will hopefully be a lot more boring.