My Milestone

I finally mustered enough courage, although partly forced because it is a pre-employment requirement to finally have my more than a year old cyst in my upper arm removed. I was accompanied by my very good friend Elisa who happens to be a medical student to Medical City for my operation at 5:00 pm. She said I was so fidgety and was obvious that I was nervous because I was asking silly questions. I mean who wouldn’t be. I knew it would really hurt. But come to think of it, I have had my share of physical pains in the past, including tooth extraction, facials, wart cautery, etc. All I had to endure was the pain of the anesthesia.

I left the office at 4:30 and went straight to my health card’s office to get my Letter of Authorization. By 10 to 5, I was already in Ambulatory OR and was asked to change to a medical gown. I was only talking with my Elisa for less than 5 minutes when the nurse told me that it was time. The operating room was daunting. It reminded me of the series ER although it was bare with few instruments. I was asked to lay down and the right sleeve of my gown was removed exposing my arm. My upper arm was cleaned with Betadine several times and the procedure was what the assistant doctor called “prep”. Then they positioned my arm on another table and covered my arm with eye sheet to just expose the area of the cyst. Then finally, they draped a cloth to separate my face from my arm. Oh God, this was it.

Then I felt the injections. The pain was gradual. I guess it was more painful as the anesthesia entered my skin. Then I felt being cut but there was no pain. They had a hard time taking the cyst off since it was already hard and stuck. I heard several nips and cuts and finally the doctor checked if there was any left. Then, they cauterized my blood vessels to close them and stop the bleeding. Next came the stitching which seemed like forever and finally the bandage.

The whole procedure took almost 30 minutes and the cyst looked like a ball of whiteheads(weird). After the operation, I was glad it was over and done with. I had a total of 4 stitches on a diagonal wound. I did not want to take a look at it yet. I just want to savor the thought that the cyst was gone and worry about the scar later. I just hope that the results of the biopsy would come out as benign. ‘Til Monday for the results.