Mar. 2nd, 2026

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
I went under the knife today. I've had a lump on the back of my head that's been growing, slowly, for about 2 years. Today I had a surgical excision to remove it.

Stock photo of many with head wrapped in bandage

I asked if they'd bandage up my head like a mummy. They said they'd think about it, but then declined due ot the location. They said the bandages would have to go around my eyes. No mummymaxxing, apparently.

Bandage on the back of my head after surgical excision of a pilar cyst (Mar 2026)

Instead I just a have a patch on the back of my head. The actual bandage is about 2" across. It looks a lot larger because of the adhesive patch to stick it to hair. Underneath there are stitches closing a surgical site a bit over an inch long.

What the doctor removed is likely a pilar cyst, a mass of hair follicles. It was 31x32mm in size. It's most likely benign and was not infected but was starting to become painful. Like, not painful most of the time since I'm a side-sleeper, but whenever I had to rest my head against a flat surface... ouch. Plus, I wanted them to remove the lump so they could test it in case it's not benign. It's being sent to the lab for testing now.

This puts the kibosh on going anywhere to celebrate retirement for at least the next week. The doctor's orders are no exertion, no lifting more than 10 lbs., and no submerging my head in water. The bandage I'm wearing I'll replace at home after 2 days, and I'll return to the clinic next Monday to have the stitches removed. The list of do-nots holds for 2 weeks.

canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
I've now completed my first week of retirement. (My last day at work was, unexpectedly, last Monday.) How has Week 1 gone? For various reasons, slowly. But at least I'm getting more sleep. Yay?

Seriously. Having a schedule now unconstrained by artificial things like 8am (or even 7am) meetings 5 days a week has allowed me to sleep in a lot. Where I thought I'd continue waking up at 6:45am many days— 6:45am was my standard weekday alarm for the last several years— I'm frequently sleeping in until around 9am. And that's not because I'm suddenly turning into a night owl, staying up past midnight on the regular. At least half the time I'm in bed by 10pm!


Profile

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
canyonwalker

March 2026

S M T W T F S
1 2 34567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Mar. 3rd, 2026 07:15 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios