Hi all,
So after my last cycle I had a lump about the size of a grape in my shoulder. I’ve had it before so I didn’t really think anything about it; it went away after a couple of weeks so I wasn’t too concerned. However, this lump didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
I wasn’t really freaking out, though. I wasn’t feverish and there were no other signs of infection. It did feel ever so slightly hot (more on that later) but there was no pain or anything. The lump was only visible when I flexed my shoulder and actually made my delt look awesome.
So no pain, no fever, past lump had disappeared. I was feelin’ fine. Then I read a thread on another forum talking about this shit and I went from feelin’ fine to feelin’ very not fine. Really very not fine. Dudes were posting pics of huge syringes filled with disgusting, virulent, orangey brown pus.
Game changer. I didn’t want that shit in my shoulder so I knew I had to aspirate this sucka. Stuck a 1" 25g in in there and gave it a sook - nothing. Undeterred, I switch to a 21g pin and gave it a sook. A little oil collected in the needle. Progress. Gave it a final bash and managed to get half a cc of oil, but the real fun started when I pulled the needle out and a shitload of oil came oozing out of my shoulder.
The interesting thing is it was just oil, not gross ooze. I was like 90% sure at this point that there was no infection, and that it had just been a pocket of oil that for some reason hadn’t absorbed. I was feeling good about my aspiration attempt and decided to have another another shot at it in a few days when the soreness from the first attempts had died down.
When I woke up the next day my whole shoulder was swollen so I decided that fuck this, it’s time to see a doc. My new doctor is brilliant, and couldn’t contain his glee at the chance to aspirate a potential abscess. He was actually singing that circus music (“da da dee dee dee dee da da doo do…”) when he was doing it. He wasn’t getting anything out of it (“this is really depressing, I was hoping for some pus”) until finally he pulled out a small amount of oil (“I wonder if it stinks?” - then he sniffed it). He’s sending it away for tests but he says he doubts there’s any infection, it’s just a precautionary measure as it did seem a little hot to the touch. It seems I got the lion’s share of the oil when I aspirated the first time, and the doc agreed that my theory of it simply being a case of scar tissue stopping the oil absorbing was probably about right. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotics, and if the sample he sends away shows signs of infection then I’m to do a course of those.
So the moral of this story is: got a gross lump? Get a needle in there, cowboy!
Actually no, that’s not the moral of the story. Don’t be a fucking idiot like me! There is SO MUCH that could’ve potentially gone wrong.
Just go to the doctor. Seriously. They’re here to help.