Years ago my mother had one on her wrist, dead center and on the “top”. She had heard of this whack it with a book “cure” and enlisted her teen-aged daughter (me) to help her out. Well, being given license to whack your mother with a book, albeit on the wrist, was an opportunity I wasn’t about to pass up!
I took the book (don’t remember what the title was, but I can say with confidence it was not the bible as we didn’t own one), lined up her wrist and WHACK!
It got rid of the cyst alright, but it also unleashed a torrent of cursing the likes of which I never heard before and never will again because of the inordinate amount of pain caused by said whacking.
Based on this anecdotal evidence, I do not recommend the “whack it with a book” cure.
I had one on my right inside wrist in high school. The Doc decided to drain it just to make sure that’s what it was. It was filled with a clear liquid that was really thick like Karo syrup. After he drained it, he pushed really hard on the syringe to show me how thick it was and it came out really slow and wrapped itself around the needle. Really cool. The thing came right back as he told me it probably would and it lived on my wrist for a few years till I accidentally shut it in a safe at work.
So that’s what this lump on my wrist is. It never got squicky-looking like the Google images I just searched, though! It’s getting smaller already and now I can push it down between tendons so it doesn’t show. Not that it was ever noticeable to other people. I’ve been monitoring it for a couple of months and figured if it started to get bigger or bother me for any reason I’d have it looked at, but this thread reminded me to take a look at it since the last time a week ago. It was only really noticeable if I bent my wrist, and now it’s not really evident at all, especially when I push it in.
I had one surgically removed from the back of my wrist about 20 years ago. Simple outpatient procedure with a local anesthetic via a Bier Block.
I had quite the conversation with the surgeon during the procedure. “This is a tendon.” twang
It was more than a little interesting when the anesthetist released the tourniquet and dumped the anesthesia into my system. I remember it being very cold and the fastest buzz I’ve ever had.
I’ve had one on the inside of my left wrist for years and years. I honestly can’t remember not having it. In all that time, only one person has ever noticed it and asked me about it, and I didn’t even realize it was a ganglion cyst at the time.
I’m right-handed, and the cyst showed up long before I learned to type, so it wasn’t caused by that. I consulted a doc recently, because it’s grown ever so slightly in the past year. He said unless it hurts, gets a lot bigger, and/or begins to bother me, to just leave it alone. shrug
I’ve had several, all at the same place, my right wrist, very near the bony protusion. When it gets large and tender, I whack it away. It’s an odd feeling because you can feel the implosion beneath your skin. In any event, I’ve found that (empty) beer bottles work the best because they have weight to them and can be directed away from that bony protusion that gets in the way of full impact when using something flat, like a book. Plus, you can drink the beer beforehand, which helps work up the nerve to hit yourself.
The last one I had was pretty painful. It sat right on the nerve. Then one day, I realized that it was gone and I had not actively whacked it. I play tennis and type a lot and it’s a relief not to have that constant ache. It hasn’t come back since then, and it’s been several months.
My niece had quite a large one (I’m talking five times as large as mine) on the back of her wrist. My husband performed the beer bottle cure and, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn’t returned. I wouldn’t know because she hasn’t spoken to us since. (I kid.)