"Lovely Leggy Lump": What is this thing on my leg?

[bobstevens4]

Dr Steve, I have found a small, marble-size lump on my upper thigh. There is no pain and it seems to be pretty deep under the skin. I am seeing my doctor tuesday, but could you give me some suggestions as to what this could be? thanks, 42 male

[Dr Steve]

Dr Steve, I have found a small, marble-size lump on my upper thigh. There is no pain and it seems to be pretty deep under the skin. I am seeing my doctor tuesday, but could you give me some suggestions as to what this could be? thanks, 42 male


Bob:

painless lumps under the skin can be sebaceous cysts (cysts made of living skin cells that live under the skin and can't slough off), lipomas (abnormal collections of fat cells forming a fatty nodule), and a host of other things including lymph nodes. Very few of them are serious, but the miniscule fraction that are serious makes it worth getting them checked out when you find them.

The odds are this is a totally benign lump. But get it checked out on the small chance that it's not. Let us know what they find!

your friend,


steve

PS: sorry for the vague answer...without taking a sample and looking at it under the microscope it's hard to say, and without being able to even see it, it's impossible. :-)

[bobstevens4]

Thanks DR. Steve, I am going to the doctor on tuesday.

[Dr Steve]

Thanks DR. Steve, I am going to the doctor on tuesday.

Good luck with it.

The workup could go from watchful waiting..."AH...it's nothing, let's just watch it", to sticking a needle in it (Fine needle aspiration), to scheduling an excision (they numb it up and remove it surgically...usually can be done in the office and is relatively painless), to even getting an MRI. Let us know what they say, ok?

[bobstevens4]

Thanks for the help , you are right on the money. The lump is just a cyst.

[Dr Steve]

Thanks for the help , you are right on the money. The lump is just a cyst.

nice. thanks for the feedback. now you can tell people "look at my parasitic twin" and stuff like that. :-)

oh, and here's a link about parasitic twins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_twin

if you google it, the photos are just awful.

maybe not so funny after all. But you don't come to me for comedy, thankfully. :-) Glad it all turned out ok!

[HBox]

One time I had a lump (it's actually still there) on the front lower portion of my right leg. Right in the middle between that ankle and knee. I had two of my doctors say it was a cyst. I go to the surgeon to have him look at it and eventually take it out. He comes in the room, looks at it, feels it, then starts pondering. He first says "This is interesting," then immediately recognizing how disconcerting to me that might be, then says "oh, don't worry, it's nothing bad." Turns out it isn't a cyst, it's my muscle bulging out. There is a tear in the fascia and whenever my calf muscle flexes it bulges out through the hole. It's not bothering me at all so it wasn't even worth fixing.

[Dr Steve]

One time I had a lump (it's actually still there) on the front lower portion of my right leg. Right in the middle between that ankle and knee. I had two of my doctors say it was a cyst. I go to the surgeon to have him look at it and eventually take it out. He comes in the room, looks at it, feels it, then starts pondering. He first says "This is interesting," then immediately recognizing how disconcerting to me that might be, then says "oh, don't worry, it's nothing bad." Turns out it isn't a cyst, it's my muscle bulging out. There is a tear in the fascia and whenever my calf muscle flexes it bulges out through the hole. It's not bothering me at all so it wasn't even worth fixing.

you know, we've talked about these things a lot and I've never mentioned that one. I do go on and on about how the human body has all these areas where there's a tough, fibrous outer layer with an elastic inner layer. You see it in the intestines, joint capsules, muscles, and even the schlong. Kind of like the old tires with innertubes thing, where the outer tire would split and the innertube would bloop out.

Tears of the "fascia" (which are fibrous sheaths in the body...from the latin word for "bandage" or "band") generally cause splits along the "grain" and whatever's inside bloops out (I can't think of a better word for it). In the intestine, this causes a diverticulum (if you have lots of these, it's called diverticulosis), in muscle, it causes a thing that looks like a cyst, as you said.