Ready to See What's Under that Bandage?

[canyonwalker]

On Monday I shared a picture of the bandage on the back of my head from where a doctor surgically removed a cyst from under my scalp. Here's that pic again:



Now, are you ready to see what's underneath? And what the cyst looks like (after removal, in a test tube)? I'll put those behind the cut

Oh, and good news came in this afternoon: the cyst is just a pilar cyst, a mass of hair follicles, as the doctor initially thought. It is not cancerous. (There was a small but non-zero chance of that.)


The doctor instructed me to remove the bandage this morning, 48 hours after the surgery, to clean the wound and reapply ointment. Here are the stitches on the back of my head:



For perspective, I think the stitched incision is about 1.5 inches (3.75cm) long. I'll have my spouse pose a ruler to it next time we take a picture.

What was this cyst all about? Ah, that's what you clicked through the squeamishness warning to see!

These next two photos are from the doctor's office on Monday.



This is the pilar cyst the doctor removed from under my scalp. It sure looked bigger on its own than it felt under my fingers.



The doctor said it measured 31x32mm. That is definitely bigger than what it felt like. my estimate was 15x20mm.

Comments

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm so glad it's not cancerous!

Also, eurgh but also kind of fascinating in a weird way (the images of the thing)!

[canyonwalker]

A strange thing, in retrospect, is that I never really worried, "Is this cancerous?" as it developed over the course of 2-3 years. I figured it was a subdural lipoma, an odd lump of fat just under the skin but above the muscle, based on friends having those and mine having a similar development and look and feel. Thus I was a little surprised at the doctor's initial examination when she said it's probably a pilar cyst.

"Pilar?" I asked. "Is that spelled with a P-I or P-Y?" I'd never heard that term before. When she explained the Latin root pilus I understood. It's hair follicles. Apparently those are common for lumps that grow under the scalp.