Had a little impromptu visit to the Doctors today. As I said a the beginning of my blog, I will be truthful, honest, and open, so if you are slightly squeamish, don’t continue reading! You have been warned!

I am quite a “cysty” person, I get cysts on my armpits and boob area quite frequently. I have sebaceous cysts in my groin area which are basically cysts that have gone hard. They are nothing to worry about, but occasionally they flare up because they rub together and just get a bit angry! So I have a collection of cysts on my right side, which flared up a few days ago, which is normal, but “normally” my body would kick into action, and sort it out. Due to my immune system being a load of crap right now, the cyst just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

No word of a lie, it looked and felt like I had grown a testicle! I now completely understand from a male’s perspective how a testicle getting stuck to the side of your leg is uncomfortable, or how you can actually sit on a testicle! It was soo painful, so swollen and the skin was stretched so much.

I called the doctor to explain what was happening, the fact I had chemo on Friday, and I didn’t want this cyst to pop internally and I end up with an infection which could cause me to have an even more suppressed immune system, and then cannot have chemo on Friday. After persuasion, I convinced the Dr that he needs to have a look at it, drain it, or do something to ensure that my chemo is not going to be stopped.

That afternoon, I hobbled into the doctor, I led on the table, pulled down my underwear, and he took one look and said, literally “Yup, you were not lying”. And that was it, he saw it, agreed that it was huge, and prescribed me a course of anti-biotics. I asked if I was allowed to try and squeeze it to get rid of the pressure as it was so painful, he said that I could sit in a hot bath for a while to soften the skin, and then maybe squeeze it. He did say that if it had a proper squeeze right now, it would probably explode anyway. So that’s what I did!

I got home, jumped in a boiling hot bath for about an hour, and gave the lump a little squeeze, and yes, it exploded. Not even joking. This brown/red liquid shot out of the cyst, like a rocket and went everywhere. Anyone who watches Dr. Pimple Popper would have loved it!  After about 3 minutes of light squeezing, all the pressure was gone, and the lump was a quarter of the size!

After a few hours, the pain was gone, I could walk properly, and I am just now happy that I know it has not caused an infection and I can continue with chemo.

On a normal day, things like this would not bother me. I barely take medication for a bad headache, but while going through chemotherapy, you must think of every little thing that could impact your treatment. There are so many jobs around the house I want to do, but some of them could cause me injury if gone wrong, and therefore I just haven’t done them.

It is very frustrating being limited to what you cannot do, BUT, this is the temporary pain, for a longer life 😊