EPTIt hasn't gone down in a few weeks, and just bleeds if I mess with it too much.
I've decided to forfeit waiting six months for a dermatologist appointment to remove it and just self remove it.
I know self surgery is dangerous, but I figure I can remove a silly hemangioma.
So here is my plan:
1. Soak knife in soap then boil for a few minutes
2. Hold ice to hemangioma for a few minutes to numb it.
3. Scrub are with alcohol and thoroughly wash hands
4. Raise and cut, apply gauze and pressure to stop bleeding.
5. Apply neosporin.
6. Sterile bandage.
Should fix it, right?
Only bad thing is that a hemangioma is a collection of capillaries, so bleeding is going to be an issue. Figure salt or pepper could be a backup coagulant if I can't get it to stop.
So anyone have any suggestions (besides go to the doctor)? Anyone else cut a mole/hemangioma like this with success?
UPDATE:
SOOOOOOOOOOO
First of all, I've had experience with both animal and cadaver small scale surgery and wound closure and I'm going into med school.
But some of you are right, I'm not yet a doctor so this was probably a bad idea.
SO here is the fail story:
1. I tie off the hemangioma because I think it's a good idea
2. I accidentally tie it too tight, causing it to start to bleed.
3. I try to stop the blood everywhere and end up ripping off part of the part I sinched off with dental floss.
4. I run upstairs, stripping off my clothes to avoid getting blood everywhere.
5. My roommate looks at me and goes "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
6. I grab tequila (40%) quickly and scrub the wound with sterile gauze and tequila.
7. I grab my boiled scissors and cut off the excess that's hanging.
8. Roommate walks in, sees blood everywhere and goes "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?"
9. I close the door on him.
10. Scrub more tequila on it.
11. Use a dishrag to start soaking up blood.
12. Blood everywhere.
13. Kick open door, run downstairs, grab sterile gauze pads and run upstairs.
14. Roommate asks if I need help, has IPA in hand. I take the IPA.
15. Girlfriend calls. Hang up because I can't talk.
16. Rescrub wound with LOTS of IPA, pour it on it.
17. Use one sterile gauze pad to soak blood off wound.
18. Use next three gauze pads to apply pressure on wound.
19. Bandage gauze pads to chest.
20. Laugh, walk downstairs, read how stupid I am on TL.net, and then make this post.
It isn't bleeding anymore...or at least I think.
Build character, right?
UPDATE #2:
So, I have an update for you guys...the rest of the story.
If you want a one line summary:
DON'T EVER DO THIS!
SO!
THAT NIGHT:
I thought I stopped the bleeding. And then my girlfriend calls and wants to come over.
So I'm like OK, all is clear, gauze is on there, I'm fine.
We go to eat some dinner, and we come back and I want to check on the status of my self-fail-surgery. I lift up the gauze and it started gushing blood. So, my girlfriend looked at me and she was like "OH MY GOD!" And my response was similar to the one this guy gave...
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/images/2008/04/24/holygrail018.jpg)
So I try to put pressure on it and keep it clean. I use more alcohol, and she starts freaking out, I told her to give me thirty minutes.
So two hours later I still hadn't gotten it to stop, and I was also filling a bit lightheaded because my blood volume had gone down just a hair, so I chugged some water to start helping it get back up. Pressure was stopping the bleeding, but it wouldn't clot.
So I went to Walgreens to get a styptic pen.
+ Show Spoiler +
OH, too bad, they were out.![[image loading]](http://pet.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pPETS-3761186t400.jpg)
Oh, what's that? You don't carry styptic pens and I need a prescription for Silver Nitrate?! FML!
My girlfriend yells at me until I agree to go to an emergency room.
So we get there around midnight and the waiting room is like this:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://www.foxnews.com/images/265500/1_61_070226_escombe_waitrm.jpg)
Nurse says the wait time is six and a half hours. Hell, I think, by then the Walmart will be open and I can go buy some styptic.
So I consider self-cauterization. Then decide against it, as burn wounds have a pretty high chance of infection without clinical-grade sterilization.
So I buy some saline wash, scrub the wound with alcohol, rinse it with pressurized saline wash, and then gauze it for the night. Girlfriend isn't too happy.
NEXT MORNING
I lift the gauze. No bleeding, except that the clot is now integrated with the gauze. So I try to rinse it off with saline and...pop, there goes the clot, and now it's like this:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://www.satanspace.com/gallery/albums/bloody/bloody-mess.jpg)
So I gauze it and rush my ass to an immediate care center (which is like an emergency room for cases that aren't TOO much of an emergency).
I tell the doctor I was a dumbass and messed with a hemangioma. I show her the gauze pad and tell her that it is going to bleed if I remove it.
"Go ahead, remove it."
"No, it will bleed a lot."
"It's fine."
"You need gloves."
"Just take it off."
(I take it off)
"SHit I need gloves."
(Hands me gauze)
"Apply pressure. Uh, kelly, do we have a cauterizing device in the trauma unit? No? Do we have any silver nitrate?"
She goes and looks for ten minutes for the stuff while I'm laying down, cursing my luck. She finally finds some, scrubs my wound, puts on silver nitrate, a non-stick bandage, some gauze and tells me to leave it alone for 24 hours. She also says that I need to get it lasered sometime, because it might bleed again. She also gives me a tetanus shot for the hell of it.
Called dermatologists earlier today, all of them have wait times in the excess of two-three months.
So I got some styptic and antibacterial spray and I'm going to have to make do until my appointment. I haven't removed the bandage yet but I hope it won't bleed anymore!
SOOOOO
Lesson has been learned. Just because you think you might know how to do something doesn't necessarily mean you know how, or even if you do (I sort of, as in slightly knew what to do) you probably don't have the tools to do it.
Fun day.
UPDATE #3:
Hahah, glad I'm getting some interesting feedback on my heroic/stupid actions.
I figure that when I do finally become a full-fledged MD, I can tell this story to patients who are contemplating doing something like this themselves.
It really would have been nice to know that deodorant had anticoagulants in it, I didn't know it had AlCl.
Another update on the wound...
Took off the bandage yesterday, and my skin is irritated a fuckton from so many bandages. The lady must have applied ten of them, 3 inches thick and 10 inches long, in a crosstitch pattern of a rhinoceros. I've had to use alcohol to dissolve the glue because it's so thick on my skin and it won't come off, and some glue near the hemangioma won't come off until I think it's safe to scrub it.
So the end result to the hemangioma, at the present time, is that it is now the size of your average mole, if not a bit smaller, and is now flush with the surface of my skin. Must have gone deeper than I thought, but at least it isn't as big (probably now 1/6 of its former godzillaesque size).
So for
-2 units of blood
-$10 medical supplies
-$20 copay
-1 gallon of gas
-1 pissed off girlfriend
-10 scoops of poor judgement
You can get a reduced-sized hemangioma!
I guess it beats the price of a surgery for complete removal, because they usually consider it a "cosmetic" surgery. I'm going to tell them this story and convince them that it is life-threatening so it gets removed using my insurance. Dude, I almost bled out on this thing...
I would post pictures but I do not have a digital camera, ever since I broke it while at a party (beer spray owns digital cameras).
UPDATE FINAL (?):
Man, I feel like a total bitch.
I have an appointment set up for tomorrow to get this thing lasered off (it keeps bleeding if I rub it too much).
So after this epic journey, I end up exactly where I should have - in the office of a doctor who is qualified and has the right tools to do the job. Irony...
On the positive side...at least I'm settling things with this hemangioma. He's going to eat laser and burn to death.
UPDATE (POST-DOCTOR):
So I went to the dermatologist today, who is probably the nicest person I have ever met.
The lesion hadn't been bleeding for a bit, but when I took off the bandage in front of the doctor it started shooting like old faithful.
Apparently it's a pyogenic granuloma, a lesion that can have excessive recurring bleeding and is quite nasty looking. Check out some pictures online if you want an idea of what it looks like.
She numbed it, excised it for biopsy, and cauterized pretty deep to prevent recurrence, although I've read that this fucker has a 15% chance of coming back.
Well, I'll be ready this time. With my home-bought cauterizing device!
Jk, never again.
/endblog
