So brave

Yesterday cost me about $400.  Not totally unexpected.  I had my Dr. Appointment for that ganglion cyst.  I was thrown off a bit by my doctor's appearance though. I expected an older white male,  short and chubby. I have no idea what made me expect that.  What I got was a dark skinned,  skinny,  angular nosed, young man wearing a pink Polo that made his skin really pretty.  He was gentle and funny... And professional.  I don't want anyone to think I was flirting with the man. . Lol. 
After discussing my problem and having him bend and twist and press around in my wrist he confirmed what I always thought.  The part of my wrist that sticks up is bone, not a cyst.  Which had him worried because it could have meant surgery or an eventual wrist replacement.  A wrist replacement!  I've never heard of a wrist replacement!  But he informed me that almost anything on my body could be replaced (side note, none would be better than the original though). So he sent me off to get some xrays.
I asked every person available how much those would cost me. .. No one knows!  What industry can you go to, specify exactly what you need and not be told the cost until after you agree to it.  I don't mean that they could give me a ball park figure but not an exact price. ..I mean they said it could be a few hundred or more. .. or less, but you will get 50% off cause you are self pay. .. Who cares what 50% is if you don't know what 100% is? How do I know it is actually discounted if I don't know the original cost up front?
Sorry I digress. .. Back to my wrist.
I returned to the doctor and was shown the bones in my wrist on the computer.  They both look exactly alike!  Nothing wrong with the painful one at all.  I paid, or rather will pay for something that no one could tell me the cost and in the end I didn't need. .. But I'm glad to know I don't need surgery!
After talking this over with the doctor he offered not to charge me for an ultrasound to take a look and see if there was anything he could do. 
And to our amazement there was indeed a cyst.  A tiny one under the bone sticking out, it was causing the pain and some inflammation on two of my tendons.  So then I started warning them about my extreme dislike for needles and the doctor seemed nice but perhaps didn't believe it was a serious concern, who likes needles?  The nurse however got me a cold lemonade and some peanut butter crackers, and then when I mentioned I wouldn't eat or drink until after the procedure because I might puke she offered to get me something to puke into.  I refused because I didn't think I would puke,  the only times I have ever puked was during the glucose test in pregnancy.
Then they left me in that room for a while with all the stuff they would be using in my wrist!  Nerve wracking!  But I kept from thinking about it by reading an article in a magazine about spd which I found very interesting but finished before they came back.
When the doctor returned I was still pretty calm and feeling very proud of myself.  He sprayed my wrist with something pretty cold and then injected something to numb my wrist.  I always react after the needle so trying to stay conscious I asked about the cold stuff he sprayed me with.  He said he had no idea what else it could be used for and then started reading the label and informed me it was flammable.  Lol.  I asked him not to light me on fire. He laughed and we chatted a moment while he waited for the numbing stuff to work.
Then he got the ultrasound going again and started by taking fluid out of the cyst and then injecting it with a steroid to take away any inflammation and get rid of the cyst.  And while he did that I started fighting the urge to puke.  I even asked him (mostly because I thought talking would help me stay conscious) if I passed out and convulsed would it mess up what he was doing?  He said no. Then I told him I thought I was going to puke.  He got me a trash can and then called for his nurse in a sort of panicked voice. If I had been feeling better I would have laughed at his reaction.  He found me a little plastic basin and I held it while trying to regain my balance, not puke, and not pass out.
Im happy to say that after a few minutes, a cup of cold lemonade, and some crackers, I was OK.  I didn't pass out or puke!
Then I realized I would be driving a stick shift home and wanted to cry.  Lol.
Any way. I made it through.  Pretty well too.  And the doctor when he returned to check on me picked a little about how he had never lost a patient.
  Now I am supposed to wait a few days before reporting the results but while it was really painful last night it feels almost normal today (normal as in still painful) hopefully tomorrow I can say it is normal like my other wrist.

Adventure awaits me

Anyone who knows me well knows I am pretty much terrified of needles.  I steeled myself against the possibility of a needle today and went into urgent care to have them tell me why my range of motion in my wrist was down to about a1/3 of what it should be.  I felt brave. I felt confident. I felt like I could handle it, or at least try to.
There are only a few possibilities of what could be wrong, one of them being a ganglion cyst.  I'm familiar with them, I have one on the other side of my wrist, both of them actually. But this seemed harder smaller and affects my movement much more than the ones I'm used to, so the idea that it could be a ganglion cyst both comforted me and terrified me.  Comfort because it is better than some of the alternatives,  terrified because the treatment for it involves a needle extracting the fluid in it and another needle putting something back into it.  Two needles sounds like just the way to get me to faint and make a complete fool of myself.
I was so brave.  I went in alone to the doctors office. I waited cheerfully to see him.  He came in took a quick look at my wrist and sent me packing with a referral to a doctor that he trusts deeply and whom he always refers these sorts of things to because he is the best. .. And as a bonus to me he is a family doctor and charges less than a surgeon would. .. yup ganglion cyst.  So lucky me I do get a needle shoved in my wrist.  Oh I'm dreading it!  But I'm brave I can do it.  But it scares me much more than having babies ever did.  I can do this!  By God's grace I will do this!