Sun, 30 Nov 2008
Fear of an Early Death
It all started a week before Thanksgiving when Joyce, the woman who cuts my hair notice that a small lump on the back of my head had gotten bigger. So I went to see a doctor about it, whi said, "This will have to come out," and sent me on to a surgeon. All the while the lump on my head was getting bigger and harder and I was getting more and more worried. My mind was ping ponging beween, "it's just a cyst" and "it's cancer." When I told the surgeon about the lump, he immediately went to feel the lymph nodes on my neck and scheduled me for surgery the next mrning, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So I spent a sleepless night—what was it going to be, cyst or cancer? Well, it was only a cyst, an infected sebaceous cyst. The surgeon numbed the area in back of my head with a local anesthetic, cu the lump open and sucked out the contents with a little vacuum cleaner. There was an amazing amount of pus. He also cut out a small wart above my eyebrow and held it up like a trophy to show me. So I was sent home with a prescription for painkillers and antibiotics, relieved to know I would live another day.
