Diagnose your mysterious lump

About two weeks ago, I came in from my farm chores and found a mysterious lump on the back of my hand. Along with the lump the back of my hand swelled as well. It wasn’t particularly painful and I don’t remember hitting or being hit in the hand to cause trauma and besides there were no bruise marks around it. I assumed it was a spider bite (lots of them around where I mow and keep the farm equipment). So, after consulting with my Army medic son, I took some Ibuprofen and tried to forget about it.

But this mysterious lump doesn’t want to be forgotten for some reason. After a week and a half, it’s as big as ever and still quite sensitive. Not so sure now it’s a spider bite. So, after being nagged by my wife and encouraged by my son, I finally relented and went to an urgent care center last week. The PA who tended to me shook his head and said: “I’ve never seen anything like that!” But, because it was surrounded by some swelling, warmth and redness, he prescribed an antibiotic that I’ve been taking now for four days; the surrounding swelling and redness are gone but not the mysterious lump.

Not to be paranoid or a hypochondriac, but certain thoughts do go through your head (I’ve already had one malignant melanoma removed, and we’ve attended the funeral of a dear friend who left her “Mysterious lump” unattended until it was too late).

So what’s the responsible thing to do, especially for us seniors who seem to be a little more susceptible to life’s challenges and a little less resilient than we were in our 20s and 30s?

Well certainly we shouldn’t ignore any medical condition we’re facing, especially if neither we nor the doctor have a clue what it is. So, this morning in preparing for today’s column, I went to one of my favorite places, the front porch swing, and pulled out my trusty Smartphone. After punching in a few keystrokes: I found www.WebMD.com has a self diagnostic tool: Punch in your age, zip code, symptoms and touch the diagnostic graphic where the symptoms are and bingo. WebMD doesn’t know what this mysterious lump is either! I’ll bet you thought I was going to tell you that WebMD had the answer right? Not always.

But, that’s not to dismiss the value of this self diagnostic tool. As I played around with it, I was impressed with the information that we literally have at our fingertips. I certainly don’t recommend online tools as substitutes for doctors and other professionals, but they sure are a good supplement to our knowledge base.

And, of course, one other thing about these tools that we seniors like is they are free, so why not use them?

Another option is to use a fee-for-service site that, for a very nominal fee, offers real-time online physician consultation with face-to-face contact using your computer screen and camera. We offer this service to all of our employees at Visiting Angels.

It’s especially popular with caregivers who often have to work odd shifts or find themselves with a sick child in the middle of the night.

So, when you have a mysterious lump or some other ill that you need help in diagnosing, don’t ignore it, think out of the box with online tools that our generation never had. And, may you enjoy good health for all your

tomorrows!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors. See you next week!

Bill Milby, CSA, is a Certified Senior Advisor and a Director of Visiting Angels® of Macon, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA/

HHJ News