A Tale of Pus and Saline

Well, ladies, gents, and Lieutenants (all two of you), the time has finally arrived: my cyst came out! It only took 3 appointments in one week at the base clinic, but the infected cyst is all gone! All that's left is a giant cut in my back that the doctor decided shouldn't get stitches but instead stay open. Yay. Here are some highlights:

-Lidocaine injected into your skin as a local anesthetic hurts like a b*tch. It really does. I don't exactly know what happens after that initial needle poke, but man, about 5 seconds after that my skin was on FIRE. Oh that sucked. Thankfully it only lasted a few seconds. But then he did it again.

-I was left by myself to numb up for about 15 minutes, just enough time to build up the nerves. Yay.

-I love how during the cutting procedure, the doctor says "Oh this doesn't smell nearly as bad as I thought it would!" Good. I also like how he mentioned to me, "Yeah, I'm putting my flu shot off too because I also hate needles." WHAT?

-I can honestly say I have experienced a nurse knocking an entire bottle of saline onto my face during a minor procedure. It was certainly interesting! I'm just glad it was something as harmless as saline and not, say, iodine.

-Only I would started talking about how cool I think elephants are when my doctor is busy with a scalpel on my back. I really shouldn't distract him.

-Next time, I would definitely prefer a wound like this to be stitched up. I have a gaping hole in my back at the moment. To prevent it from healing from the outside first, we have to place some gauze in the actual wound to keep it from closing. Yeah... that also hurts like a b*tch when Matt is removing or replacing my bandage. Freaking OUCH.

-I think I will order that leather jacket from Nordstrom. It's 55% off, and I kind of deserve it. I have a freaking hole in my back.