3399 What is this?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Newspaper obituaries are a lot more interesting
when they tell you how the person died.

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When I went to bed Wednesday night, my finger and wrist were fine. When I woke up Thursday morning, the entire tip of my right index finger, from the last joint forward, was "dead". Numb, but tingly. I had fallen asleep doing logic puzzles and at first I thought I had slept on it funny and it was asleep, but ... it didn't wake up.

It stayed completely numb all day. I figured I must have damaged a nerve somehow. About midday I noticed this lump:I figure it's a bursa. Bursae are fluid-filled sacs between joints, that cushion the joint. Sometimes they slip and bulge, and when they bulge they can put pressure on nearby nerves. (It's not bursitis - there's no pain whatsoever anywhere near the lump, I have full range of motion in the wrist and the finger, and no pain when I move them. Just that very annoying numbness and "buzzing" in the fingertip.)

The lump feels very hard, but it isn't "bone hard", it dents when pressed with a fingernail.

The outer side of my finger tip regained sensitivity yesterday, but the inside edge, halfway around the finger tip, is still numb.

Anyone else ever have this? Will it go down by itself? Any guidelines as to how long to let it go before I see a doctor? Should I be taping it or something? Google isn't a lot of help on this....

Oh, that reminds me - Google "tilt", and let me know if your screen tilts!

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Later - a commenter has suggested it might be a ganglion cyst. I think she may be right. And if you haven't Googled "tilt" yet, do it! It might be gone tomorrow. (Use Google, not some other search engine.)
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