What do you do to make a living?

The Epiphone is tempting, but I love the dark tone of my Martin acoustic/electric. Someday, I would love to get a nice Gretsch DuoJet with a Bigsby tremolo.

 

A recurring ganglion cyst in my left (fretting) hand forced me to give up guitar playing, but I have to jump in here, because I still love it.

In my experience, Epiphone guitars vary wildly in quality; I've seen some that came close to Gibson-level quality, and others that were dime-store junk. Such is the life of mass-production in Korea.

When I was actively playing, my main combo was/is (I still have both) a 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom built in the Custom Shop (hand-made) with 3 pickups and chrome hardware (since gold eventually fades anyway), and a Marshall 50-watt 1962 "Bluesbreaker" 2X12 combination amplifier. Sweetness personified.

 

I've got one in my right wrist that is just where my wrist bends. It really restricts my playing and begins hurting like heck after about 20 minutes. I'm having surgery in November to get the sucker out because there is no way I'm going to quick playing...hopefully the surgery works, otherwise I need to stick to playing blues...the only music where crying while you play adds authenticity.

 

I had surgery to remove mine the first time, and it came back, so I had surgery again. Now my left wrist looks like someone attacked it with a chainsaw, so I took the ganglion's nickname "Bible cyst" to heart. I got drunk one night and had a friend of mine smash the lump with my Masonic Bible (that sucker weighs about 10 pounds), and it exploded/disappeared. Hurt like hell, but it worked. Unfortunately, it came back.

I finally figured out that if I just kneeled on the floor, placed the lump on the floor, then pushed down on my wrist with my right hand, the cyst would burst and be gone, almost totally pain-free. However, it always came back until I hung up playing.

I'm not advocating home cyst-removal procedures, but I never would have had surgery if I knew how easy and safe it is to take care of them yourself.

 

I talked to the doctor about the Bible method...in fact we was going to do that and brought in a big heavy book, but it is sitting in my carparal tunnel sheath right above an artery. If I ruptured the artery trying to smash the cycst my playing days could be over for good.

 

Not to be gross or anything, but what exactly comes out after you pop a cyst? Is is mostly puss and blood? Or is it a single mass shaped like cyst? Or all the above?

Abner

 

It doesn't burst open and break the skin, the cyst is broken under the skin and absorbed by the body. Basically it is a tendon sheath or the like that herniates and develops a sack, shaped like a mushroom under your skin with the cap of the mushroom being topmost and against the skin. The reason it comes back is because even though you bust the cap, the stem still allows for fluid to fill it back after it heals. Surgery is to cut the stem and tie it off, but even then it can still reopen and come back. It is painful if located near a nerve or if placing pressure on the nerve. In my case it flares up and pushes against my carpal tunnel nerve and becomes very debilitating.

Usually the cyst forms due to some form of trauma...in my case it was handcuff training without proper wrist wraps. I've struggled with it for years. Looking forward to it going away.

I've already tried draining it with a needle...so painful I actually levitated off the floor but in that case it was a thick...nasty...yellowish fluid.

 

Damn!!!!!!!! So in your case you probably have no choice but to have surgery? I imagine it would be laproscopic?

I had to have three hernias repaired laproscopically about two weeks ago. I am healing amazingly fast, much to my relief. My choice was to be less active thus allowing the hernias to become bigger, or have them repaired and get back into the gym. It was a simple choice for me. CUT ME OPEN DOC!!!!!!!!!! Thank God for medical insurance.

I am wonding about something though. When you deal with a cyst using the bible method, isn't there some danger or coagulated blood entering the blood stream and causing a embolism?

Abner

 

Yeah, I definitely don't recommend the book method, but the technique I came up with is very little pressure, and almost pain-free. I was with my girlfriend one night in my apartment, and noticed the cyst was getting big enough to pop, so I got down on my knees and did my thing. My girlfriend screamed and ran for the bathroom when she heard the loud "SNAP" when it burst.....hahaha.

It's a clear, very thin jelly-like substance. I watched the operations to remove mine (morbid, I know), and it looks exactly like this;

Ganglion Cyst Removal with Acupuncture - YouTube

 

Cool video. Thanks! Of course, I started watching some of the more gruesome ones. If kind of reminds me of when I got a clogged sweat gland under my armpit (it kinds of looked like a cyst). I popped that mofo and all this gross stuff came out. The swelling went down and it never came back though.

Abner

 

This is the sickest I have seen - I could not stop watching - HUGE CYST EXTRACTION - YouTube

 

Oh great, now I watched it. That was about the grossest thing I have ever seen. How did that lady keep from throwing up?

Abner

 

The worst part was when she stuck her finger in the hole in his back!

 

I almost hurled at that point. The junk that came outof that cyst looked like a bunch of spoiled cheese whiz or something. I guess I won't be eating cheese whiz anymore.

Abner :smile:

 

Initially, that had all the makings of an "America's Dumbest Videos" moment of "Hey ya'll, watch this!", but the woman obviously knew what she was doing, and even made mention of Lidocaine to numb the area, so she was a professional.......at something.

 

OK, I'm not commenting on the gross video, nor do I want to watch it (barf!)

I started my professional career as a journalist in the Navy. That job took me to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (before there was a prison for terrorists), Beirut, Lebanon; the Black Sea, the Vatican and the Persian Gulf during the Iran/Iraq War.

I continued working in journalism after I got out of the Navy, working for a number of radio and TV stations. My last job in journalism was for a national radio news network.

After my wife became disabled, I switched to another (higher paying) job in publishing.

 

My CV is pretty boring:
Always worked in accounting (last 10 years), my current position is as management accountant at a FTSE250 REIT based in London, UK.
Studying for the MSc of International Accounting & Finance at the University of Liverpool at the moment, but will drop out in summer with the postgraduate certificate and change to MBA. Generally looking for a career change, but not sure in which direction and my German roots make it hard to give up the security of a well paid job...

 

Started my adult life as a technical writer with a major computer company. I then started my own tech writing consulting business and then did a complete career change in my thirties to theater, where I did acting, directing and playwriting. Now I'm a playwright, which pays nothing, so to earn money, I still write mostly consumer articles both offline and online, such as in Accounting Salary Info.

But like all theater people, still hoping for a big break that will allow me to pursue my stage passion full-time.