It’s Exhausting Trying to Stay Healthy in America
I have many personal stories about healthcare deferred, issues postponed, obvious problems sidelined until they (hopefully) resolve themselves, but the lump in my neck couldn’t be ignored.
I noticed it about a year ago, right before the pandemic was picking up steam — a small pea-sized bump on the right side of my neck, right near my jaw.
I mentioned it to my doctor at my annual physical in December. She probed it and declared that it was superficial, nothing to worry about.
“It’s been there for a while,” I said. “Should I get it checked out by a dermatologist ?”
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” she’d said.
Since I didn’t relish the idea of paying to see a dermatologist, I let the matter drop.
The bump didn’t go away.
“You can’t ignore bumps,” my 17-year-old daughter said when I told her what the doctor said. “They always become a problem.”
My daughter is an avid fan of the TLC show, Dr. Pimple Popper, and considered herself somewhat of an expert on bumps. “It might be a sebaceous cyst,” she advised. “It can get infected and you don’t want that to happen.”
No, I didn’t want that to happen, but I also didn’t want to pay to have the bump diagnosed…
