So this happened...

A little health update for those that may be interested…I know I told a couple of you about this over the last month or so, but figured I would update the rest of you.

About six weeks I noticed a lump in my right arm, near my elbow. It didn’t hurt, and at first I thought it was a bruise. I’d just returned from my trip to San Jose, and I thought I may have bumped something in my travels. Over the next few days I noticed that when I gripped anything with my right hand there was a pain from the lump to my hand. To make sure I wasn’t crazy I asked my mom to look at it to see if she could even see it. She could, and a few days later I went to urgent care to get it looked at (since I couldn’t get in to see my regular doctor).

You may or not be able to tell where the lump is in this photo, but I’m sharing it anyway:

At urgent care they did a few x-rays and said it was likely a lipoma, which is a fatty tumor that is 99.9% benign. I had one in my right leg about 30 years ago and learned at that time that I may find more of them. I have felt small ones in my arms here and there, but this was much bigger. They suggested I monitor it and follow up with my doctor in 3-4 weeks.

I got in to see my doctor about 10 days later, and she agreed it was likely a lipoma but wanted to have an ultrasound done to be sure. So, about 10 days after that I got the ultrasound which confirmed all the original thoughts. Lipoma.

My doctor then referred me to general surgery, as it seemed like it should come out. And today, I had the surgery. It was done in-office, so just local anesthesia, which of course means I was awake for the whole thing. I didn’t look, obviously, because yikes, and I wore my noise cancelling headphones and listened to a playlist of my favorite songs so I couldn’t hear anything either. The deadening shots were uninteresting, but the burning sensation of the medicine going in went away quickly. I had to get a few more shots as the surgeon worked because I could feel some of the things he was doing. Not yay. It took a little over an hour to get it out as it was long and flat and laying right on top of the muscle (likely why it was impacting my grip).

They sent the lipoma to pathology of course, just to be certain it’s nothing more, and I should have those results in a couple of days. I’m not worried about it being something else, but it’s always best to be sure.

So now I have a huge bandage on my arm, and as the numbing is starting to wear off my arm is starting to hurt. I’ve changed the bandage once, and can take it completely off tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got an ice pack wrapped around it right now and have taken some Aleve so I can hopefully sleep without any pain. We shall see.

In this photo you can see the heavier gauze underneath in a long strip - that’s the incision. Whee!

So very thankful my mom was here to drive me to and from the surgery center (because lord knows trying to drive my own car with a stick shift would have been a nightmare), to fetch my Chili’s dinner, and to help me change the bandage. And if anything gets dicey in the night, she’ll be here to help with that, too.

Anyway, I’m doing fine, just a little sore.

In more interesting news, I got to see the incredible Ed Sheeran Saturday night in Denver, and it was, as always, fantastic. That was the best way to spend the Fourth of July in my opinion. There was a massive delay about 10 minutes into the first opener’s set due to severe lightning in the area, which turned into a giant thunderstorm for about 15-20 minutes. I was on the field, and we were shuffled into the tunnel and deeper into the back hallways of Mile High Stadium, which was interesting. The poor first opener wasn’t able to return, and the second opener’s gear was zapped by the storm so his band couldn’t join him, but he was able to play a few acoustic songs and was great. Thankfully all of Ed’s equipment worked and he put on a fantastic show for a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes. I’ll never tire of seeing him live. Here are a few pics from my phone - haven’t retrieved the ones from my camera yet. I’ll share those another time.

And one great video of a song he did just for us since it was the Fourth of July…

Also, note to self, do NOT buy tickets on the field for stadium shows. I am short. Which I obviously know. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, there are lots of random backs of heads in these pics and the video. That’s just how it goes.

Until next time…