Tuesday 8 October 2013

What I have been dealing with the last couple of months - Branchial Cyst

In May of this year i noticed a small lump in the left side of my neck, i went to the doctors and had a series of tests done (ultrasound and an MRI) both were horrible.  After a month of waiting for results i finally was diagnosed with a Branchial Cyst.  Looking things up online (which you should never do because it always seems worse than it actually is!) a Branchial Cyst is a defect from in the womb that usually grows during adolescence mine was obviously a late developer.

After diagnosis the lump seemed to grow rapidly until it was causing me extreme pain, difficulty breathing (as it was pushing on my wind pipe, and my arteries) I went to see a specialist who drained it (ewwwww) and booked me in for surgery to have it removed.  I had to have it drained twice due to the size and how quickly it was growing.  

Last Thursday (3/10/2013) i went in for my operation, this is what my neck looked like the morning of surgery. 


The lump was about 10cm (huuugeee) i was under for about 2 hours but i finally have a normal sized neck again!  There is a small chance the cyst could come back but its really unlikely.  The surgeon has done a really good job and the scar is really neat so fingers crossed in a couple of months it shouldn't even be noticeable.  He has done the but along a natural crease in my neck to help with minimising the appearance of the scar.  This is my neck same day after surgery (look away now if your squeamish!!)


The surgery really took it out of me as it was pretty aggressive, plus with it being on your neck all your muscles ache and because its still swollen and bruised it literally feels like ive been punched directly in the neck :(
But after only a few days the scar and swelling are looking loads better.

 
I'm definitely on the road to recovery but think it will take a while to get back to normal.  The main moral of this is please go to the doctors if you find anything, luckily the lump didn't turn out to be more serious but you should always go and check things out!

Can anybody recommend any good concealers for when its healed? :)

cherrylovesit x 

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