My Lipoma

You may not know what a lipoma is. I didn't until I had one myself. Actually, I didn't know what it was until I had already had it for 3 years.

According to Wikipedia,

a lipoma is a benign tumor composed of fatty tissue. These are the most common form of soft tissue tumor. Lipomas are soft to the touch, usually movable, and are generally painless. Many lipomas are small (under 1 cm in diameter) but can enlarge to sizes greater than 6 cm. Lipomas are commonly found in adults from 40 - 60 years of age, but can also be found in children. The most common type is the "superficial subcutaneous lipoma", ie. just below the surface of the skin. Most occur on the trunk, thighs, and on the forearms, although they may be found anywhere in the body where fat is located.

Interesting. My lipoma was painless (unless pressure was applied to it) and was just bigger than 1 cm. My lipoma was on my head, nicely covered by my hair which meant it only came up when people were doing my hair. It has been my constant companion for the past six years.

Today, I scratched my head and felt something strange. It turned out that I scratched a layer of fat off my lipoma. It was like... a large piece of dandruff. Not alarmingly large, but large enough for me to know it wasn't dandruff. I felt my head and there was what seemed to be a tiny hole at the center of my little fatty friend. I decided to give him a little squeeze and felt something give way a bit so I asked my brother-in-law (the only person home) to see if there was something coming out. Sure enough, he confirmed that it looked like a giant zit popping. I ran to the bathroom with him and we watched in awe as I continued to squeeze out copious amounts of fat. From the top of my head. From my lipoma, my little fatty friend. It was awesome! We sat in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes while I continued to squeeze and squeeze and fat continued to burst out of the top of my head. It was like a giant eruption of fat. Seriously. It looked like fat they remove during liposuction. It could have been lard. It felt like warm candle wax... You know? Totally cool. Totally bizarre.

We decided to take some pictures. This is probably disgusting, but we thought it was awesome. In fact, at one point I even heard my BIL saying, "Man, I wish I had one of those!" None of the pictures really show much, but pretend that they do. Imagine fat coming out of the top of your head.

These pictures are of the aftermath.

A bit of perspective. The hole was small relative to the size of the lipoma.
It was like a huge underground zit.
And my hair looks matted and disgusting because of the blood, fat, and other juices seeping out of my head.

A little closer. I don't know what those digit things are poking out of my head.
I'm waiting for Erik to come home to do a proper inspection.
Gross?

This is about 1/4 of what came out... maybe less than 1/4.
And those aren't flat pieces either.
Some are taller than they are wide.

Now my head hurts. The pain is pretty localized to where my lipoma once was, but kind of an all around headache now. I can't believe it's gone.