OT: Ganglion cyst

Thanks,
Tim

It seems indeed to be common practice to use a phonebook or something
similar. However, I think it will come back eventually. It is a minor
operation to have it removed properly.

Greets, Derk

I had one and that is what my Dr told me to do...it went away and has
never come back.

The reason to see your doctor is that your diagnosis may not be
correct. Nobody on usenet can confirm the diagnosis.

--Paul

Just read the description on the internet ( my uncle had one recently and
wanted to check out exactly what it was..). Turns out I had a very similar
thing at the base joint of my index finger. A little painful, but mostly
just annoying. I went on a tear one day and squished the heck out of it
with my thumbnail and it popped and disappeared. I still have a sore spot
there and I suspect it will return one day, but it's been probably 6 or 7
years since I did that. Oh, and never trust your health to some quack on
usenet!! :-)

Cheers,

Scott..

Actually the timeline went like this:
1) Oh crap, there's a lump on my wrist.
2) Look up carpal tunnel, that's not it.
3) Ride several times, type a lot at work, do drywall mudding on home ceiling,
ride metric century on Sunday.
4) After the ride a bike shop owner/friend says "that's a ganglion cyst, whack
it with a phone book". He's a bit of a practical joker so I'm a bit leery.
5) Look up ganglion cyst on google. My wrist looks like a textbook description
but no mention of phonebooks on largely doctor oriented webpages.
6) Post on r.b.t, get some good answers.

I think I'll wait a few days and see what happens.

Thanks for the help.

Tim

Exercise is unlikely to have anything to do with a true cyst.

Google, unfortunately, cannot provide a pathological examination.

Your friend's advice traces back, in all likelihood, to Mario Puzo's
novel "The Godfather," in which an abortionist wins the heart of
Mafia widow by the smashing a cyst with a phone book. The most
charitable comment is that Puzo also glossed over most of organized
crime's actual habits.

Apart from damaging your wrist, the phone book method may also lead
you to ignore something quite different. Even experienced surgeons
are often in the dark when removing growths. A surgeon, for example,
once expounded at length about how a hard lump on my left buttock
was probably a proteinaceous cyst (scar tissue wrapped around foreign
protein, such as an insect's stinger) or the same sort of scar tissue
forming around dead fat cells killed by a sharp blow (common in women's
breasts). He was, of course, just guessing, based on his experience.

The pathologist reported a pilomatrixoma, a luckily benign growth
arising from a hair cell. Such tumors are usually found on the necks
and heads of young girls, so my surgeon was not expecting to find it
on the behind of a 40+ male.

Don't smash your wrist. See a doctor.

Carl Fogel

It's from the jet-skiing. It's from the bad karma for using fossil fuels
for recreation (not to mention being obnoxiously loud on one of the most
serene and sacred places, the waters). You should have been surfing.

One of the top results from Googling "ganglion cyst" is an article
from eMedicine.com that includes the following:

"In the past, home care has included topical plaster, heat, and
various poultices. It even extended to use of a heavy book to
physically smash the cyst (sometimes this is called "Bible therapy").
These forms of treatment are no longer suggested, however, because
they have not been shown to keep the ganglion cysts from returning and
could, in fact, cause further injury."
(from http://www.emedicine.com/aaem/topic215.htm )

So, advisable or not, it does not appear that Mr. Puzo made that stuff
up out of thin air.

Chalo Colina

wacking it can work as well as anything else. according to my doc who drained a
big one on the side of my foot. He says there is less chance of it coming back
that way then when he drained it with a needle. hell when I got home after he
did it it was back bigger then ever. took a couple of months then it went away.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes
Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices
See http://www.knight-toolworks.com For prices and ordering instructions.

Does it sound right to YOU?!? :-D

See a doctor. It may be a ganglion cyst, it may be something else.
It's a fool's game to try to diagnose medical conditions based on what
one finds on the Internet.

For those of us who wish to freeload on the doctor's advice
you paid for - - what _did_ he suggest?

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

I stand corrected.

What I was thinking was that the scene in Puzo's 1960's best-seller
was likely the source from which most people learned about bashing
swellings. That is, his book popularized it.

But you make the point that Puzo got it from somewhere, which
obviously never even occurred to me.

Curiously, a quick search found only what seem to be recent but
undated mentions of "Bible therapy" on the web--do you have any
books in mind or family history that would pre-date Puzo? Judging
by the web site that you mention, it seems as if there should be
earlier traces of bump-bashing. I'd be fascinated by any other
literary appearance of this home remedy.

Now that the original poster seems to have recovered from his
understandably desperate original reaction, it's worth explaining
that smashing a swelling with a heavy book may "cause further injury"
because some sufferers wield their instrument edge-on and break
their own wrists or fingers.

However, even mentioning how to hold the bat, so to speak, is a bad
idea when distraught people are seriously contemplating such procedures,
lest they take the comment as advice and encouragement, just it's a bad
idea to mention sterile procedures to panic-stricken people who are
considering carving out their own tumors. The emergency rooms already
have plenty of customers.

I admire your post--you're clearer and more concise than I was,
and you pointed out my folly as nicely as possible.

Thanks,

Carl Fogel

I'm a doc. You need to see one, preferably an orthopedist.

If you don't believe me, look up "synovial cell carcinoma". It's
every orthopedist's nightmare..they live in fear of missing one since
they are aggressive cancers. And by external inspection you can't
tell for sure if a mass like yours is a synovial cyst (ganglion) or a
synovial cell carcinoma.

The odds are greatly in your favor that it is what you think it is.
But as Clint Eastwood said: "Are you feeling lucky?". If it's my
wrist, it gets surgically excised.

And if you go to an orthopedist and he says it doesn't have to be
excised, get a second opinion.

By the way, I'm not an orthopedist. I'm a family doc who also does a
lot of sports medicine. And I send these straight to the orthopedist.
This newsgroup is wonderful for advice on bikes. It isn't my
resource of choice for medical information!

TG

I guess you're right. Fortunately it''s my first episode in 16 years of
jet-skiing. As far as surfing, I'll pass thanks. The idea of duking it out with
a bunch of pimply faced kids to ride the sparse waves is not attractive.

Tim

I believe he was refering to the original poster's, and his doctor's,
remedy, "whack it with a phone book".

dave h

Hit it with a book. He said it is basically an encapsulated fatty
deposit, and the smack with a book breaks the capsul and the body then
absorbs it.

Unless your friend is a doctor, I would whack him with the phone book and
then use it to find a doctor to check out your wrist.
----------------
Alex

With all respect to the family doctor who told you to have it checked
for cancer - it's very unlikeley to be cancerous if you can trace the
inception to a specific event like your jet ski accident (or my drill
incident).

--
Check out my bike blog!

http://diabloscott.blogspot.com

David Ornee, Western Springs, IL USA

>--------------------------<
Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com

Dave

> A friend told me it's a common

It's called "The Bible Cure" - whack it with a Bible.

The (modified) Bible Cure* worked for my wife's ganglion cyst. Hers has
finally gone away after several years of recurring symptoms.

-=B=-

* Phone book

I have one on the inside of my wrist which has been there for about 4
years. My doctor has stated that it won't go away on its own and
smashing is not the way to deal with it.

I had two others on the backs of each hand when I was in my late
teens. Those eventually went away on their own, but I was a lot
younger then.

You should really ask your doctor about yours, if only to confirm the
diagnosis.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jad...@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

nice to know you're a doctor and can do your own very accurate
diagnosis. of course, you're absolutely certain that it's not
anything else, and that it's benign, right?

if you believe that, you should whack your head hard with a bible
to cure the problem. no, harder...

First point. Go to a doctor. Those who suggested it are
absolutely correct.

Secondly I want to share that I have had one & my brother also had one.
He was a house painter at the time so I suppose it was related to that.
Mine may have come from combination computer use & possibly cycling.
Both my & my brother were told by our doctors to whap it with a book.

I have a personal opinioin that a leather bound book (like many family
bibles are) may be preferable as they have some mas to help in the
momentum but yet have a certain amount of give so as not to damage the
rest of your wrist. Hey, this is a tech issue after all. :)

I haven't checked with my brother recently, he lives in another state,
but I know that his went away years ago after his loving wife happily
whaped his.

In my case, my (then 17 year old) son administered the treatment. It
went away in a couple of days but did come back in. My son had gone into
the Air Force so I banged my wrist against a wall the second time & it
hasn't come back again.

I did present this to my doctor before willy nilly whapping it & feel
that it is the correct first step but if you doctor is like mine & my
borther's they aren't going to suggest invasive surgery for something
that can be treated by a good old low tech method.

--

http://www.emedicine.com/aaem/topic215.htm