My First Set of Stitches

Okay, that's not entirely true. I had a ton of stitches when I was a few days old after open heart surgery. But today I had my first set of stitches that I can actually remember.

About six months ago I noticed a small, red bump on the back of my right shoulder. I thought it was a bug bite. (I always get bug bites. I swear bugs can smell my blood from a mile away and they hunt me down, and pick me, out of a crowd of 50 people, and bite only me, repeatedly, until I itch like crazy. It's so weird.) Anyways, I thought it was a bug bite, so I didn't pay much attention. About a week later, I noticed that it was still there. "Maybe it's a pimple," I thought. Gross, I know, but I didn't know what else it would be. I tried to pop it and got nothing. It wouldn't budge. It was hard as a rock. A few weeks after that, I noticed that the bump was bigger. I showed it to Mitch and he said it was probably a cyst. I told my dad about it and he said the same thing, it's probaby a cyst. So, I ignored it and went on my merry way. It didn't hurt at first, but the last few weeks it started to hurt enough to bother me.

The pain made me worry about it. What if it's cancer? What if a spider laid an egg nest in my shoulder and little spiders are going to hatch out of it? (You never know, it could happen!) So, I finally decided to get it checked out. The verdict: my dad and Mitch were right, it's just a cyst. Talk about a sigh of relief! I would have just died if little spiders had hatched out of my shoulder!

The dermatologist said I could let it be, but it would get bigger and start to hurt worse. If it got any bigger, he'd have to surgically cut it out. OR, I could have it removed today with an 8 mm punch and a few shots to numb the area. That sounded much better to me, and since I was there by myself (I always go to the doctor by myself, even though my mom thinks I shouldn't), I made the decision to have it removed right then and there. Why wait and have SURGERY? I do NOT do blood, hospitals, needles, etc. So, I turned my head so I couldn't see it, gritted my teeth while he gave me FOUR shots to numb the area, and tried not to vomit when I saw the blood. (Don't worry, there wasn't THAT much blood.) I did good; I didn't even get quesy! The doctor was able to remove the entire cyst in one, smooth, pain-free move and he stitched me right up. I have to get the top layer of stitches removed next week, and he put some permanent ones in down deep in the skin, which was probably a good move.

Overall, my first set of stitches wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. I seriously didn't feel a thing, after the shots that is. The shots actually hurt, but only for a minute or two. I'm glad I did it. Now I don't have to worry about cancer or spiders. Wahoo!