Its a Benign Tumor

Last week I noticed a little pain on the back of my arm close to my armpit. At first I thought it was a zit because I had broken out in anticipation of AF and had some real doozies on my shoulders, but a zit never surfaced. After a couple of days went by, it started to feel more like a bruise. I checked it a couple times every day to see if I could see a bruise beginning to form and racked my brains as to how I could have possibly gotten a bruise there and how I wouldn't be able to remember getting it, but a bruise never formed. Then two nights ago I was checking things out again and felt a little lump. I went and asked my husband if he could feel the lump too, and sure enough, he could. I asked him if he thought I should go to the doctor since it had grown so quickly and was hurting me a lot. Like a guy, he told me that if it was him, he'd wait three months, and if it was still there THEN he would think about going to the doctor.

I went to bed that night a little apprehensive and scared, and determined that if it was any worse the next day, I would call the doctor. I woke up yesterday morning and the pain was much worse, the area that felt bruised was exponentially bigger, and the muscles in my arm not only hurt, but felt fatigued. Time to start panicking if you ask me! I called the doctor's office as soon as I got to work, and as luck would have it (finally going my way!) he had a cancellation yesterday afternoon. Of course I took it!

More than an hour after my scheduled appointment time, my very frazzled doctor finally walked through the door. At this point I was half asleep from waiting. After assessing the lump in my arm he told me that it was a non-cancerous tumor. I just stared at him for a few minutes while I collected my thoughts and said, "Tumors can form that fast?" Apparently they can. He seems to think it is what is called a lypoma, which is a little cluster of muscle or fat cells gone wrong. They are typically benign and can go away on their own. The reason mine hurt so much was because it had settled itself on a nerve branch in my upper arm. His recommendation was to stop touching it and wait until next week to see if the pain subsided. If it doesn't subside, he is going to have to cut it out. In response to the "cut it out" comment I asked, "But isn't it kind of deep?" Yes, yes it is. Fabulous.

The funny thing is that my husband had just had the same thing cut out of his forearm last month.

Ever since that stupid movie, Kindergarten Cop, with Arnold Schwartzenager that came out back in the late 80s or early 90s, my family has joked that any pain we felt was a tumor, to which the reply was always, "Its not a tuma!" Now I can honestly say its a tuma. lol