Sorry for spending almost a week to compose this post. It is certainly interesting for people who wanted to know more of a lump / something related to medical again. I have been doing much reading to understand critically about lumps on our body, and perhaps more ambitiously, understanding this topic as thorough as possible by asking a real medical doctor with massive questions.
I always assume that it can be really tough to predict a person's future, especially when it comes to their lives. This is why most people would contribute something to other people, such as doing good deeds (i.e. donation, social work, etc). I met both my cousin brother's last night. They were rushing to get home (in a different state called Penang, 3.5-4 hours away from Kuala Lumpur) since they are working over there.
Here is the story. A couple of months ago, my cousin found a round thing somewhere near his belly button. When you touch that round thing, he will feel painful. It is in liquid form, which means upon touching it, you will feel some liquid contined in it. The doctor has identified that the round thing is known as 'abscess' or to be more specific, it is known as the 'abdominal abscess' (somewhere near stomach). So, he went for a 2 weeks operation to remove the abscess.
Caption: abdominal abscess
Recently, he found another 'round thing' somewhere near the previous abscess. I believe that should be another abscess, but we were all worried about him. So I spoke to Dr. Rui (my collegue) again about this to see what he suggests since he is very critical person when it comes to explanation. This is also his area of expertise, so he is the right person to ask. According to Dr. Rui, this so called 'round thing' (i called it as a lump) may have a possibility to one of the following: (1) abscess (2) cyst (3) hernia, and / or (4) tumor. I will explain them 4 very briefly in the latter..jpg)
Caption: popular spots where 'round thing' may be discovered
Dr. Rui suggests that this picture (above) has identified some popular spots where most patience will find and / or operate those lumps. Since my cousin brother told us that he found another abscess (he think it should be another abscess) somewhere around to the previous one, immediately, I have asked Dr. Rui to explain it more thoroughly. He asked me the location of the abscess, and if it was located in the abdomen or surface of the skin, and i replied him on the surface of the skin. Therefore, he believe there are 2 possibilities if it is just an abscess: (1) there is a small possibility where the hyperplasia (abnormal way of increasing the number of normal cells in a person's body) caused by the scar after operation, and (2) the abscess is recrudescence. If it is the first possibility (1), then then the wound will normally recover after two or three months time. The second possibility (2) may occur when the doctor has not completely remove the abnormal tissues from the abscess entirely, and due to the recrudescence, my cousin may need to accept the next operation :S The first operation caused him around Rm 4, 000. It is so costly.
Caption: abscess found around a person's neck
Originally, an abscess is something very normal. It is a collection of pus (fluid form of inflamation) formed by infectious tissues in that spot and poluting it by some bacterias. I think abscess is not something critical, since it looks so similar to the pimples. When that particular patient is having fever at that time when he found a lump on his body, then the possibility of him getting an abscess will exceed 80%. The wound do not necessarily need to be treated with antibiotics but definitely require surgical intervention to remove it permanently.
Caption: hernia
Dr. Rui explained hernia as protusion (something jutting out from the body) of an organ. This means some muscles tissues were pushed out from a person's organ (i.e. intestine), making it visible on the person's skin. If you touch it, you can feel it as a round object. If you touch it, you can feel some liquid spontaneously moving around in that section. According to Dr. Rui, most hernia are harmless, although there is always the potential that the hernia will become strangulated. It means if the hernia blocked a person's blood vessel in that part of the intestine, it would be extremely dangerous, and will cause death since the blood flow was disconnected by this hernia - in rare cases, when that person is really unlucky.
Caption: hernia and its location
There are 4 types of hernia; (1) inguinal hernia (2) femoral hernia (3) incisional hernia, and (3) umbilical and paraumbilical hernia. The (1) inguinal hernia is the most common type of hernia, normally in men than women. The intestines push through a weak spot in the inguinal canal. The inguinal canal is a triangular shaped opening between the layers of abdominal muscles near the groin. The (2) femoral hernia looks similar to the inguinal hernia, and always appears in the groin area, developing near the leg crease (around leg area). It occurs in the triangle shaped gap between the inguinal ligaments, the lower side of the pubic bone and the vein. Because of the angle and shape of the pelvis, this type of hernia is more common in females. This type of hernia is the most likely to become strangulated (and causes death when blood vessels were blocked). The (3) is the incisional hernia (also known as a ventral hernia) is when the bowel pushes through an incision made during previous abdominal surgery. The site of an operation is always structurally weaker than the surrounding area, leading to a susceptibility for hernia development. Lastly, the (4) umbilical and paraumbilical hernia are types of hernia is most common in newborn babies. It is caused by a weakness of the abdominal wall in the area around the navel. In some cases these kinds of hernias close naturally but if they do not, they may require surgical repair.
It is advisable to repair the hernia as soon as it was found on a person's body to prevent complication in our organ, and finally causing death. Dr. Rui said that hernia can be easily repaired through surgical and will usually not causing long term changes in a person's life. The surgery session will not take very long, usually a maximum of 2 hours.
Caption: a picture of an operated cyst
The next is the cyst. The cyst picture in the above may look a little gross but that is an actual cyst operated from a person's body. A part from fluid, the cyst is also made from the combination of air pressure and some other materials. Though the abscess and cyst are quite similar in term of the shape of the lump, yet there are some differences between them. Firstly, the nature of them, and most importantly is that the cyst will never produce a painful effect when you press on it. One behaviour of a cyst is that the cyst may have a small possibility to vanish by itself, though most of the time will require surgical to completely removing it.
Caption: cyst
Two main symptoms to distinguish if that is a cyst or hernia, is that cyst usually occur after injuries and / or surgical operation that was regarded as injury. This lump is not very serious and will normally not causing death like hernia. Considering a cyst is not something serious, but definitely require some treatment. Usually a month or two will not caused a cyst to grow. The abscess is possible to grow within the two months time frame. My cousin believe that the current lump was there since a month ago, and therefore, Dr. Rui would suggest not to ignore it as a hernia since he is not feeling painful when he press on the lump with his finger. Yet, hernia can grow in a very short time period, i.e. in few hours time. Usually, hernia / cyst are lumps caused by inborn reason and / or that particular spot infected by viruses/disease.
Definitely, finding an abscess on a person's body is definitely better than than getting one hernia / cyst. Dr. Rui recommend people to get the B-ultrasonic scan rather than just the X-ray scan (X-ray is not reliable at certain time) who found a lump on their body. One main reason is, we should not exclude the possibility of getting a tumor (or cancer) since tumor may have a very small possibility in producing a lump in a person's body, and that is really critical since it may cause death. To read more about tumor and different types of tumor, click HERE to view my previous post that was written on tumor.
Caption: Milo, a chocolate beverage
Finally, this is something extremely humor that I have ever heard in my life. It is regardless to Milo (a type of nutritious chocolate beverage that most people would consume everyday). The story goes like this:
Few days ago, we went to this restaurant and the restaurant manager approached us. As usual, I ordered a herbal drink for myself and a cup of milo for my aunt. The manager said to my aunt "hello aunty, I suggest you to not drink milo" and we asked why. According to him, a person's digestive system will not work appopriately in digestion at age 45 or beyond. Since milo contained cocoa in it, therefore, it is very dangerous for a person beyond age 45 to consume milo anymore. He added "if a person after age 45 continue consuming milo may have a possibility to catch cancer (the growth of tumor) in his body" :O When I reached home, first thing that I do was to asked everyone around me if they have ever heard of consuming milo will cause a person to catch cancer. I think I have not listened to such news before. Therefore, I asked Dr. Rui if this is true, and he goes "my grandparents and I love to drink cocoa beverages since they were young, and he is at age 80 now". He added "I have never listened to such cases in my life before". To ensure that what he said is solid, I called my family doctor to ask him again, and he answered something similar to Dr. Rui, lol. So everyone, do not worry to drink milo even if you turn to an older adult someday.
1 comments:
Yer.....the pictures is extremly gross...I even have to cover the pic with one hand while reading ur blog....
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