Underarm bump

I've had this weird "bump" on my right underarm for....three months. It has gotten larger and smaller, but it has never been painful. It is "squishy". My skin has never been red, inflamed, draining, or malodorous. Two Mondays ago, I became more aware of the bump when my arm was resting at my side, and I experienced slight tingling/loss of sensory perception in my right ring finger and pinkie. I am not 100% sure that the tingling I experienced was a result of the fluid in the cyst pressing against my ulnar nerve because sometimes I experience that anyway since the accident two years ago and the weather was changing and that is usually when I experience the tingling.


Since I had already taken off Thursday morning at work, I scheduled an appointment with my GP. He palpated the cyst and moved my right arm into various positions. The diagnosis, sans scan/xray, was sebaceous cyst, and I was given a round of Keflex and instructed to put warm moist compress on the area two times a day to encourage circulation.

That was coming up on twelve days ago. The cyst is probably 90% gone, and at the follow up this morning, I was released barring it doesn't return. Here are some pics of the cyst that I took over the course of the past couple of months. It was always bigger in the morning when I first woke up.

Costa Rica: Day 7

Friday. Day 7. Debbie had scheduled a spa day for everyone, but I was not really interested in doing that, so I took the opportunity to go surfing. The concierge set up a lesson for me, and a guy named Allan came and picked me up at about 10am. He was from Texas with a Mexican mother and a Dutch father. He was gorgeous...dark skin and hair but piercing green eyes. He travels on a Dutch passport and has a permanent resident visa for CR, so he doesn't have to leave. I enjoyed talking to him. We drove maybe 15 minutes to Jaco.

My instructor was Alex, and he was bangin' hot. Native CR, but he had highlights in his hair from all the salt and sand. He surfed all the time and his physique showed it.

We spent the first ten minutes on land, going over the three steps to stand up on the board. Then we went out into the water. We were in a little cove area again, so the surf wasn't as big as Hermosa, but I still thought it was pretty big as I was a first-timer.

We paddled out to the third line of waves. It was about as rough getting out as I thought it would be. Whenever the whitecap comes, you just brace yourself on the board and it pops you up over the wave, then drops you back down on the other side. You have to turn your head to the side so you don't get the wave right in the face. Then you start paddling again. The current was strong....every waved sucked me back toward shore a little, but I made it. More than anything, my hipbones/pubic bone were sore from being popped up against the board so much.

OK......so we are chilling out between the third and fourth lines and he tells me to turn around and start paddling. When I feel the wave pick me up and push me, then stand up. I had never ridden waves properly before. It was definitely obvious when the wave picked me up and pushed me. I tried to quickly stand up, and I ate it hard. Paddled back out, tried to stand up, ate it again. Paddled back out, tried to stand up, ate it again.

Alex gave me pointers each time, and even though I had only tried three times, I was a bit discouraged. Fourth time turned out to be a charm for me. I took it slower. And I STOOD UP!! It was awesome!! I was smiling so big, I could hardly believe it!

I stood up the next ten times in a row and rode most of the waves all the way into shore. It was awesome!

After 45 minutes, we took a ten minute break and went back out. I crashed a few times, stood up a few times, and on my last attempt, rode it all the way in. I'm glad I finished on a high note.

Surfing was awesome. And I had almost canceled the lesson. I am actually quite terrified of open water, especially when I can't see the bottom or touch the bottom. But he assured me there were no sharks since the water is so warm. Alex also told me that he would never teach a lesson in shark-infested waters because he would be sitting duck out there on his board with his feet dangling in the water. Also, we never went out past chest-deep. To be honest, though, once I got the hang of it and was having so much fun, I forgot all about my prior fear!

It was definitely a positive experience, and I wish there was time to go again. If I had done this earlier in the week, I guarantee I would have been out there everyday!

Allan drove me back home, and I was smiling the rest of the day.


Then, this happened:

So, there was all kinds of small to medium sized mutts running around. They all had collars and seemed well-fed. They were just so chill....hanging out on the beach, being awesome, etc. Well, there was a black-and-tan wiener dog that came around the house! I was so excited! He was so friendly and let me pet him. Then I went for a walk on the beach and I turned around to see the dog tearing ass down the sand after me! All four legs off the ground at the same time, ears flopping, tongue hanging to the side. It was so awesome! The dog went into the water with me, too. It was so awesome. It just trotted along next to me. I was so happy.

This was probably top five best days of my entire life! Here is also a photo of JK and I.

Costa Rica: Day 6

Another lazy day off. Usual time in the hammock with crosswords, poolage, walkage, phtographage, etc.

First I walked up to wear the land jutted out, and this time, I went out onto the rocks. There were literally thousands of little hermit crabs cruising around. Then a lone pelican cruised within arms' length of me and landed, just looking at me for over a minute!

Then I walked in the other direction of our house. Allegedly, there were a lot of sea turtle nests, and we did see one area where a dog or something had gotten into the next because there were egg shells everywhere. We missed the full moon by about three days.

JK made grilled vegetables for dinner:

Costa Rica: Day 5

Day 5 was a day trip to Manuel Antonio.

Our driver/guide was Juan Luis and he picked us up at 645am and it took a good 90 minutes to get to Manuel Antonio. It was very scenic. Manuel Antonio was more mountainous that where we were located in our house. It was also more built up/touristy.

The hike at Manuel Antonio was quite crowded. JL was the guide just for our group, but the trail was very crowded with other groups, too. JL had a scope so we could see 1. tiny insects and 2.animals that were high in the trees.

We saw: hummingbirds, two-toed sloth, three-toed sloths, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, eyelash pit viper, another venomous snake, grasshoppers, and lots of spiders (I informed JL that I was not interested in seeing the spiders so he told when I was supposed to look away, and I am greatful for that :))

We could also take photos through the scope, so there are awesome photos from that day. I will post the photos from the scope when I get them.

This two-toed sloth was caught on an electrical line. The two-toed sloth is rare. The three-toed sloth is more common.

Halfway through, we stopped at a beach area for fresh cut pineapple and watermelon. It was a little cove area. Very crowded, very scenic. The sand was fine and white and the water was clear with minimal waves.

There were "monkey bridges" across the roads around Manual Antonio. They were just either blue or green ropes that spanned the road high up in the trees or parallel to the electrical wires. JL told us the monkey wouldn't walk on the wires, but would use the ropes.


Was pretty wrecked; slept in the car the whole way back. JK made grilled vegetables for dinner:

Coasta Rica: Day 4

Day 4, lazy day off.

I went for my usual walk, nap, crosswords in the hammock, and also went into the pool. Super relaxing all around.

Oh, Alison and I did got swimming in the Pacific. The water looks murky, because it is! I couldn't see my knees, or my hand out in front of me. It was pretty unsettling how murky it was and my heart was racing; I was frantic.

JK made a red pepper stuffed with homemade hummus and red beans, topped with homemade tomato sauce with fresh basil and peas. Side local potatoes.

Costa Rica: Day 3

Day 3 was a hike at Carara National Park. Our guide was a retired/freelance man named Sergio. His is native CR, but he was to school in the States and had a good grasp on English.

We were picked up in a shuttle at our rental house at like 645am and drove, maybe 40 minutes to Carara.

It was humid, but I didn't get too hot. I wore a outer shell only (no liner) to save my skin from the bug bites, adventuring pants, and hiking boots. I was fine. Everyone else in the group was super hot.

Carara was pretty sweet. We were definitely in the "jungle." Thick canopy cover, lots of wildlife (of course), but there was a paved path. We saw: cutter ants, bats, millipedes, some smallish varment that I don't know what it is called, poison dart frogs, hummingbirds, about a million lizards/newts/iguanas, Macaws, and Debbie and I SWEAR we heard something growl at us - TWICE! If it was anything, it was probably an ocelot.

Here are some photos from the hike at Carara:

On our way home, we stopped at this restaurant for some typical CR food. It was excellent! It was open air, too. It was all pretty amazing to me.

We were all pretty tired when we got back. I took a nap, then went for another walk on the beach, then JK came over and made this spinahc and avocado soup with almonds, black bean-filled tortilla, and steamed vegetables:

Costa Rica: Day 2

Day off at the house to just chill.

Costa Rica is on "central time", but they do not switch the clocks for daylight savings times like we do in the States. Our location, in Hermosa, is about ten degrees north of the equator, so even though it is summer, the days are pretty much equal sun/night. The sun came up at around 530am and went down around 530pm. However, overall I felt there was little concept of time from a clock perspective. Everyone was just chill.

I set out in the morning the first day. From our house, I could see an area down the beach where the land jutted out, and I was determined to check it out. I had my camera and water bottle. I liberally applied sunscreen, put on a hat and sun glasses and set out. It took me about an hour to walk there. I did stop a lot to take pictures and also to watch the surfers, so I figured it was probably about 2 to 2 1/2 miles one way.

The area where the land jutted out was very rocky and I watched the waves crash into the rocks.

The sand in Jaco/Hermosa is black, because of the volcanos. It is very pretty. The sand grains were very fine, but there was a lot of driftwood all over the beach. The water is very warm. The first time I waded out, I immediately was aware at how warm the water was. And this was Pacific. There were no sharks because the water was too warm for their liking. Hermosa was a big surfing spot because the waves are fucking huge!! There are rip tides, too. But that didn't stop any of us.

When I returned from my walk, I had a little lunch, then took an nap. Worked some crosswords, went for another walk, then JK came over to cook dinner. The presentation was excellent! This is a tomato stuffed with corn salsa on a bed of mashed yucca and cauliflower.