OT: Ganglion cyst

TDWFL said:

A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this sound right?

First of all: I'm no doctor and can't be held responsible for any consequences resulting from what
I'll say further:

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

[email hidden] (TDWFL) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

Thanks, Tim

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

In article said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

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

--Paul

"TDWFL" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked no
google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration to
surgery. A friend told me it's a

common

Quoted message said:

remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this sound right?

Thanks, Tim

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..

Quoted message said:

"S. Anderson" [email hidden] wrote: >Just read the description

on the internet ( my uncle had one recently and

Quoted message said:

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,

Actually the timeline went like this:
1) Oh [censored], 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

[email hidden] (TDWFL) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

Thanks, Tim

Dear 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

"TDWFL" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my

right

Quoted message said:

wrist.

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.

(Carl Fogel) said:

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.

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
emedicine.comtopic215.htmOpen ↗ )

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

Chalo Colina

(TDWFL) said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

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
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

In article said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

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.

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (TDWFL) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

Mike Latondresse said:

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

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

[email hidden] (Chalo) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Carl Fogel) said:

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.

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
emedicine.comtopic215.htmOpen ↗ )

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

Chalo Colina

Dear Chalo,

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

OK, I can't not reply any longer...

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

Quoted message said:

"GWB" [email hidden] wrote: >It's from the jet-skiing. It's from

the bad karma for using fossil fuels

Quoted message said:

for recreation (not to mention being obnoxiously loud on one of the most serene and sacred places,
the waters). You should have been surfing.

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

"A Muzi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (TDWFL) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked no
google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration to
surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this sound
right?

Mike Latondresse said:

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

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

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

dave h

A Muzi <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (TDWFL) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

Mike Latondresse said:

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

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

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.

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked
no google and determined it is a ganglion cyst. Websites recommend anything from aspiration
to surgery. A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this
sound right?

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

I had a ganglion on my wrist a while back - probably similar to the OP's. It was an obvious result of a little incident with a core hand drill - I hit an especially hard knot in the wood and the drill jerked my wrist really hard and the next day I had a ganglion - it lasted about a year, not painfull, looked a little odd, one day it was just gone.

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).

"TDWFL" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Between biking and jet-skiing I've developed a lump on the top of my right wrist. I looked no
google and determined it is a ganglion cyst.

Quoted message said:

A friend told me it's a common remedy to whack it with a phone book. Does this sound right?

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