My Lump

For all those who know about my lump, yes, I've just had it removed yesterday at Alexandra Hospital, and I'm now recovering at home. For all those who don't know about it, yes, I've a lump and I've just surgically removed it, and I'm recovering now. For all those who know or don't know, the story goes like this.

Some time during the summer vacation, I noticed a little bump on my thigh. At first I thought it was a mosquito bite or some insect bite because it felt like a mosquito bite only that it wasn't red nor was it itchy. I didn't take much notice of it because I thought that if it weren't itchy it shouldn't be that big a deal. It would heal by itself. And I didn't bother about it.

Since I left it alone, it started growing, bigger and bigger. Then it started to hurt. It came to a time when I have problems sitting down because it was on the back of my thigh, and pressure on the lump hurt me. My parents were telling me to go see the doctor, Someone was nagging at me too, but I procrastinated. I was afraid there might be a need for me to surgically remove it.

But then came a point when I couldn't take it anymore. For my three-hour seminar classes, sitting at a same spot for long was almost torturous. My long bus rides to and fro schools were also a big problem to me. I became this inconsiderate passenger who has to prop her legs up and push on the back of the seat in front of me so as not to sit on my lump and cause me discomfort. I decided to consult a doctor about it.

By then my lump was quite big already, and it was red and swollen. Sort of like a huge mosquito bite only that it has a higher bump and it wasn't itchy. It hurt like mad when prodded.


To give you a rough gauge on its size, here's a picture in scale to my finger.

Yup, it's quite huge.

I plopped down to the University Health and Wellness Centre and asked for Dr Tan, the female doctor. Luckily I went there just before they close for lunch so I didn't have to wait that long. And luckily the female doctor was there. Although I say the lump's on my thigh, it's quite near my butt and it's on the inner sides of my thigh so it's at quite a sensitive area. haha~ Usually I get Dr Tan, but the last time I was sick Dr Tan wasn't around and I got another doctor, incidentally was also a Dr Tan. There's a lot of Dr Tans running about. Anyway, yup, after prodding at my lump and inducing a couple of ouch ouch from me, she diagnosed me as having a abrasive cyst.

She told me there was nothing she could do about it and that I needed to go to a polyclinic to get a referral to go to a hospital and get it surgically removed. I guess there's no other way of getting rid of it. At first I thought maybe can apply some liquid over to dissolve it or something less intrusive about it. My sister told me that it would rupture and after rupturing it would be better. But the doctor said it wouldn't rupture. Damn my sister for giving me false information. In the end, Dr Tan prescribed me some antibiotics to reduce the swelling and reduce some pain only. I still have to go to the polyclinic.

One good thing which I really like about UHWC, it's free! Consultation is free, and some generic medications, including what I was prescribed the other day, were free. I didn't need to come out with a single cent.

It took me another week to finally drag my little arse down to the polyclinic. I was prompted to go because my grandmother had an appointment and my mother was going with her. It was on my free day, so I went along. I asked for a female doctor again, and got this really young looking doctor who gave the same diagnosis as Dr Tan. But well, she wrote me the referral and off I went to make an appointment.

The thing about referrals and appointments with government hospitals is that the waiting time is very long. I needed another one and a half weeks for my appointment at Alexandra Hospital. Apparently Alexandra Hospital has one of the shortest waiting time, so I'm quite lucky to get a slot there.

When I finally managed to see a specialist for my lump, he made the same diagnosis as the earlier two doctors. erm, yes, I had a male doctor for the final diagnosis, and yes, I needed to hear from yet another person what I've already heard from two other doctors. This male doctor was yet another young looking doctor. Think he and the polyclinic doctor's combined age would be the same as the age of Dr Tan lor. Guess all the older doctors all venture private after completing their bond or something.

Then I made the appointment to go for surgery. The date was set to another two weeks later. Yesterday.

The appointment time was 2.15pm, I was to check into the day surgery ward. Since it was in the afternoon, I went down to school in the morning first. But I decided against having my usual coffee and opted for a more soothing Jasmine Green Tea with Honey. I was a bunch of nerves lor. After school, S came down to accompany me to the hospital. We took 33 from Kent Ridge Terminal directly to the hospital. Then we met my parents who were already there and I checked in.

I was directed to a bed, then I changed into my hospital gown and lay there and waited.
And waited.
And waited.

We waited until my dad decided to go back to work. My mum sat by the TV area and fell asleep. I lay on my bed and fell asleep. S crouched over my side and also fell asleep. And we waited.
And waited.
And waited.

It wasn't until 6+pm when I was wheeled to the operating theatre. It was quite cool that I sat in the wheelchair and the porter took me to the operating theatre. The whole nua nua idea of not needing to walk appealled to me, but of course, choy choy, it's only for once in a while la. erm, think don't want la. No, don't want to sit in wheelchair again.

Anyway, I went to the operating theatre and waited there. It was so pathetic, I sat on the chair there with a bunch of outdated tabloid magazines from summer 2006, with cover stories like "Brad says he still loves Jen", "Nicole's so thin her friends fear she's dying" and stuff like that. I read through two of those magazine just to while time away.

I only climbed onto the operating bed at 7.15pm and it was a hell long time of torture. I was awkwardly exposed, and I was menstrating, and it was cold, and there were many people in the operating theatre, think there were a few trainees or something. I was given local anesthaesia so I was fully conscious about what's going on, and I heard everything.

It was like I could feel my flesh being tugged at, and whenever the surgeons accidentally go somewhere further than the locality I could feel the pain. Oh, and I almost forgot the injection itself was goddamn painful. I scrunched up my face and teared lor. Then throughout the whole operation, I could hear the doctors commenting about everything, and even hear their chit chatting, then I heard the *snip snip* sounds of their scissors. I lay on my tummy with my face on the pillow and cried into the pillow.

It's not really because of the pain that I cried, but also because of the stress of the position I was in that I cried. Quite jialat.

Then after the lump was removed, the theatre was left with one doctor stitching me up, but seconds still went by like hours. Even after the stitching was done, my legs were scrubbed with iodine before I could get up. Yes, I could start walking immediately after. Amazing. When I got up, the first thing I notice was a pool of blood on the bed and all over my operating gown. But my thigh didn't hurt that much and I could walk and sit and I was made to sit on the wheelchair to wait for my porter to come and fetch me back to my bed.

And I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I waited for like another hour before I was wheeled back to my bed. By then it was already 8.30pm.

But in a way, because it took me that long, I managed to see my lump in its full glory. There sitting in a bottle waiting to be sent to the labs to be examined was a lump as shown in the below hand-drawn picture.


There it was, red, yellowy and huge. You can't tell from looking at the pictures of them from the surfact of my skin, now wonder it hurt like mad when I sat on it.

Anyway, I went back to my bed and had some milo and sandwich and waited for my dad to come. Then I changed out of my hospital gowns while my dad went to collect my prescription. Then I was discharged.

I was told to visit a polyclinic on Monday to get my dressing changed, and set an appointment on Thursday to do a follow up of my operation. I don't know if my stitches would be removed them, but well, see how la.

But this morning I was itching to take a shower, so I got my dad to help me change the dressing and put on the waterproof plaster thingie, but the plaster that the hospital gave was smaller than my wound and my dad cut up the plasters and stuck two on me. That was quite a fiasco because I took a shower and the water went in. In the end my dad went down back to get my late grandfather's old plasters to put them on me. That time when my grandfather was sick, my dad had to learn how to do this sort of dressings so that he could do it for my grandfather instead of paying nurses to do it.

My wound's not in a very obvious position for me to see, but just now when the two plasters were falling apart I caught sight of my wound, it was bleeding and I saw the black stitches, one of them was poking out. gross. I didn't take pictures of it but see how la. If got the chance, maybe I'll try taking pictures of it. haha~

Yup, it still hurting a bit, and my dad's told me not to move about too much, so I'm effectively bedridden. Thanks for everyone's concer, if you're concerned about it~ I wish to get well soon. At the very least, I want to get well so that I can ingest food into me. I'm told to stay offlimits from chicken, eggs, seafood, and whatnots. I'm currently on a pork and carbs diet. I'll grow fat~