Doctors that are having bad days should stay away the hell away from my ears!!!(long)

The BBQ Pit
1

I am not sure if I am pitting my own stupidity here, or the Doctor who is responsible, but I am pissed at someone!

I have had a weird cyst growing on the back of my ear for a couple of months now. I was hoping it would just go away, so I put off going to the doctor as long as I could. A few days ago, I showed it to my neighbor, who is a nurse, and she told me I really needed to go in and have it checked. Well, today was the fateful day. When I arrived at the clinic, the front desk informed me my primary physician had to leave on an emergency, and Dr. Dipshit would be seeing me. Well, I had never seen Dr. Dipshit before, but all of the staff assured me he was an excellent doctor.

I am taken back to the waiting room, and Dr. Dipshit walks in. He seems like a pretty nice guy, takes a look at my ear, and mutters something about how he had never seen anything like this “weird cysty thingy” that seems to be growing from the back of my ear. He says since it is small, and it is an easy procedure, he could cut it off right now and send said weird cysty thingy in for a biopsy. As soon as I heard the words “weird cysty thingy” I should have ran for the door as fast as I could, but hearing the word biopsy frightened me a bit, so I figured the faster I could get it off of my body, the better.

We go back to a little room with a small table where I lie down. He tells me he is going to numb the area and then cut it off. It will take two minutes. He numbs my ear, and tells me he I will feel a little pressure. I feel the pressure, a ripping noise, and then Dr. Dipshit exclaims “OOPS”. He starts calling for a nurse, and I feel a weird warm sensation running down my neck. I can’t really explain it, but I know OOPS isn’t good, and so I lay as still as possible. A nurse comes in, looks at me, and says “FUCK! What the hell did you do!” Now I know it isn’t good. They start scrambling around for a bunch of stuff, and I am yelling at them to tell me what the hell is going on. Two more nurses enter, and another doctor. The nurses are telling me to be quiet and lay still, everything is going to be fine. The other doctor looks at my ear, tells Dr. Dipshit he screwed up real good and to get the hell outta there. He then, very calmly, starts working on my ear, while explaining that Dr. Dipshit apparently “slipped” and made a much larger incision than he intended to. He stops the bleeding and tells me that he would like to take me up to the hospital to have his friend, who is a plastic surgeon, take a look. OK. I still don’t know exactly what has happened, but the doctor tells me I am going to need a couple stitches, and everything should be fine.

One of the nurses drive me and the Doctor up to the hospital, where the plastic surgeon finishes stitching up my ear and giving me instructions on when I need to change the bandages, etc… I still haven’t had a look at my ear. I ask to be excused so I can use the restroom, and peel the gauze off. Apparently, when Dr. Dipshit “slipped”, he cut through approximately 1cm of the cartilage AND cut my earlobe in half. I almost passed out when I looked at it.

We drive back to the clinic so I can pick up my car, and Dr. Dipshit is waiting there for me. He hands me a prescription for motrin, and says, “Sorry. I have been having a bad day.” I gave him the evil bitch glare, then walked away before I tried to rip off something of his. YOU have been having a bad day!!! ASSHOLE! After cutting through my ear, he could have at least given me some percoset!

After all this, I received a phone call from my husband. He has been in Iraq for 363 days, and he will be home on Thursday. GREAT! Now, I have never been one for big expectations on military homecomings, but I will be greeting my husband with a big fucking bandage on my head. That HAS to be attractive! Plus, I forgot to ask when I should call back for the stupid biopsy results (they did eventually remove the cyst)

I was so stupid to let this doctor touch me, and the Doctor better learn that if he is having a fucking bad day, not to touch his patients!!!

2

Sounds like this doctor had more than a bad day. Sounds like he didn’t know what he was doing, but did it anyway. A doctor shouldn’t do that, unless it’s an emergency. And even then only when the risk of inaction outweighs the risk of action.

Sorry for your experience. Hope you get better, and have a joyous reunion.

3

Well, at least you’ll get to surprise your husband with a phat malpractice suit against Dr. Dipshit! :slight_smile:

4

I am not a doctor…

But I am an EXPERT with “weird cysty thingies” ~ even the ones you get behind your ear. Some weird genetic thing my brother and I share. I’m assuming it’s genetic. No doctor has ever told me why I get them or how to prevent them. They just nod like it’s one of those pain in the ass medical things that happen. If it were contageous or deadly, I’d bet I’d get my answers. But I’ll settle for my situation.

I’ve been offered all kinds of remedies…
I’ve been told to make sure I’m clean (thank you very much). I’ve been told heat packs. I’ve been prescribed penicilyn (works wonderfully). I’ve been offered several procedures (as has my brother) involving scalpels. I’ve also been offered Accutane which has side-effects that could kill a horse.

In my formative cyst-thingy-years, I noticed it just kept coming back a while after my run of antibiotics. So they offered to lance it. Great, do what you gotta do, Doc. Keep in mind, this particular cyst was right in my cleavage. They lanced it, squeezed all the pus out, then packed it. This involves taking a shoelace length of gauze and sticking it in the once-filled-with-pus hole. Hurt like a son of a bitch. And I had to have it packed daily. The idea behind this is to have the cyst heal from the inside out, so make sure it wouldn’t reinfect by closing with infection still in it. Great idea on paper. I repeat: ON PAPER.

Well that didn’t work and finally they sent me to a surgeon. Long story short, he operated, removed the cyst, sent it for biopsy. Sewed me up. Sent me on my way home with some Empracet, and my boobs taped together with two full rolls of gauze between them. The scar is ATTROCIOUS! I mean really bad. Doctors see it and say: :eek: “WHAT HAPPENED THERE?” When I tell them, you can tell what they’re thinking. “Wow, what asshole did that job on her?”. I won’t get into what asshole did that to me, but I’ll give you a hint. The hint was ASSHOLE. Years later, I took my grandmother to the Head Proctologist of the Montreal General Hospital. And there he was. Dr Andrew Rheno. After many inquiries as to the legalities of him performing the surgery on my boobs, I have learned that it was the kind of surgery that any surgeon is allowed to perform. Well thank you very fucking much! I wouldn’t mind as much if I had that scar on my rectum!

The bitch of it is … I still get cysts there, under my scar. And doctors tell me I always will. So I’m scarred (for real) for no reason.

All of this to say… If it ever happens again, I would really reccomend antibiotics over the scalpel. Even just piercing the cyst will give you some relief, but the infection will remain.

About your husband coming home … Hon, he just spent a year in Iraq. I really don’t think he’ll be looking at your ear, if you know what I mean ;). Enjoy.

5

Sweetie, trust me.

He won’t care about the bandage.

Get out the candles, the massage oil, and have a wonderful homecoming.

6

What you recommend may be appropriate for your cysts, but you can’t know if it’s an appropriate treatment for Stick Buddy’s (which may not be caused by an infection). It’s dangerous to give this sort of medical advice out over the internet.

7

Obviously, I’m talking about personal experience. Notice the little personal anecdote and the “I am not a doctor”. But I still say that in all my experience, doctors don’t know much about cysts. And they won’t unless they do a biopsy on it.

My advice is: Before you let someone cut it open (especially a doctor who refers to it as a “weird cyst thingy”), you should excercise other options. Antibiotics being what’s worked best for me.

Of course I’m aware there are different kinds of cysts. The cysts I was referring to in my previous post are sebaceous cysts. However, I’ve also been afflicted with dermoid cysts on my ovaries which necessitated an operation.

I think exclusively listening to one person on a message board (who underlines the fact that she isn’t a doctor) and barring further medical advice would be irresponsible. Just as irresponsible as self-diagnosis from a Google search. But we knew that, didn’t we?

8

Yes, you prefixed your post with the phrase “I am not a doctor” - but you then went on to describe yourself as an expert on cysts, diagnosed the “cyst” (which may not even BE a cyst, we’ve no way to tell) as infectious in etiology and recommended that Stick Buddy take antibiotics rather than undergo surgical treatment in the future. Offering this sort of medical advice is irresponsible.

(And the physician in the OP WAS biopsying the lesion, not simply “cutting it open”. He didn’t err in his choice of treatment, but in how that treatment was carried out.)

9

OOOOMMMMMGGGG!!! I’m soo sorry for you. That is just awful.

PLEASE have your ear (the inside as well) looked at by a competent ENT physician. It could be worse than a sebacous cyst. You didn’t say exactly where it was on your ear (on your head behind your ear, or on the earlobe, etc) But a cholestatoma is a cyst that can grow in your ear and cause major trouble if it’s not removed…it can also push to the outside (that’s why I ask about behind your ear).

I’m not trying to scare you, but please get it checked again by an experienced ENT as soon as you can, OK?