My One Regret? Not Having Brought My Video Camera...

So, it was an eventful day-- I went to Dr. Mills, an orthopaedic surgeon, for a consultation on my wrist.  Well, not exactly-- my wrist itself is fine, but it had developed a ganglion cyst on the joint.  I've had it for a while, but the last month or so it has gotten a lot worse, and seemed to be threatening to take over my arm.  And, following Murphy's law, it was on my left hand, the one I use to write, play horn, play racquetball, and most everything else.Anyway, it was starting to really get in the way and painful... so I went to the doctor and he had a look, took some Xrays (very cool to look at), and then we chatted about options.  Settling on aspirating it, he prepped the instruments.  The aspiration procedure basically involves sticking a large needle into the cyst and sucking out its guts.  With no anaesthetic.  After having disinfected the area, he had his assistant help hold my arm down (any sudden jerking movements from the pain would make it ten times worse), then he put the needle in and sucked away.  It was pretty cool to see, actually, and he pulled about 1.5 cc of fluid out.  That may not sound like a lot, but it's amazing what it can do when it's not supposed to be in there.  I was surprised to see it-- it was thick like hair gel.  Not that I'd recommend using it in your hair.

Anyway, so now my wrist is back to normal (aside from some rather intense bruising), but I have to admit that I feel a strange sense of loss.  Almost like a friend has moved away.  Except that now it doesn't hurt to type, so that is great.  I'd post a picture, but, well, it's not a pretty sight right now.

In other news, I have only 2 weeks left of school, and then I'll be on tour!  It's strange, but I don't think it has really hit me yet that we'll be in the South.  It'll be a neat experience, though, and I've never been there before (Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi), so I'm looking forward to that adventure.

I'm also getting things ready for my internship in Washington.  I was able to find a place to live this week, so I am glad about that.  Mom is also relieved that I will not be resorting to my plan B, which was to buy a tent and some gear and just camp out all summer.  But I still think that would have been fun....