A scar scare

It started off as a tiny chicken pox scar but as time passed I noticed it growing. Five-six years later it was the size of a large bubblegum which had been chewed & rolled into a uneven round/ovalish shape. Luckily it was not visible to others so I didn’t get any awkward questions. It felt hard to the touch & didn’t pain when pinched….just like some hard tissue.

I was not unduly worried[or rather I pretended not to be..anything to avoid going to the doctors] but the better-half was not very happy with its existence. Time & again he would remind me to get it checked but I would stall saying I’d rather we get it checked in India.

So the next time we went to India I got it checked by a gynecologist who immediately suggested surgery & a biopsy. It was a 20-25 minutes procedure under anesthesia & went off without incident. I was so scared but went through it at my husband's insistence. The doctor prescribed antibiotics & a steroid cream to apply. I followed her instructions faithfully.

The biopsy didn’t show anything out of the ordinary & declared it a mass of dead cells accumulated together. The doc didn’t look surprised at all as she skimmed through the report. Again she just stressed that I apply the steroid cream regularly.

I came back to Dubai & started going to work & everything went on as usual except that the wound was not healing as fast as I expected. I called the doctor up to find out. She said there was absolutely nothing to worry & I should give the area atleast a month to heal since the lump scooped out went more than an inch inside the flesh. It was really irritating as it kept rubbing against the clothes & making it sore.

Round about the same time I happened to chance on Sayesha’s post which mentioned an interesting term called Keloid & the description sounded very familiar. I googled it immediately.

The description goes like this “A Keloid, sometimes referred to as a keloid scar, is a tough heaped-up scar that rises quite abruptly above the rest of the skin. They are irregularly shaped and tend to enlarge progressively. Unlike scars, keloids do not subside over time.”

I knew I hit gold. This keloid thingie was exactly what I had on me….so I read up everything I could on it. In short a keloid was an ugly looking mark which grew in size but was not dangerous at all. There was no point removing it because it grows back & worse, might become bigger. The only way to avoid it is to not let it happen…as in be very careful about piercings & such stuff.

Then it hit me. If a person like me who is totally ignorant about the medical field could get this much information, don’t you think the doctor would have known about it. At first I thought she must have made a genuine mistake but the more I thought about it & discussed with the better-half it became quite clear to us that there was no way the doctor did not know……the way she stressed about applying the steroid cream[to supress the growth] & other telling factors made it quite clear she knew. I got this keloid removed a few years back & it had cost me Rs.6000/- then & I remember the doctor got around Rs.3,500/- as fees. She is a well-known & busy gynecologist in our side of town, a consultant in 3 hospitals & has a full waiting room at her clinic every evening. I wonder what her need was, to put me through a useless surgical procedure. Even today I find it hard to believe that she did it just for the money.

Incase you are wondering, yes the keloid grew back…it grew back to the same size. Now that I know what it is I’ve grown quite fond of it. I pretend it is my kaala teeka*….all my childhood & teenage years I wanted the elders to put that kaala teeka on me but the prettier ones in the friends circle always got preference & ours being a Christian family my mum didnt believe in them. I firmly believe my body got fed of waiting & produced its own:-).

I no longer give it much thought but when I read A’s post 2 weeks back, for a moment there I was reminded of my own needless fears. And another reason I put this up is that I realize there will be many others like me who may have these distensions on them & panic into thinking the worst. Relax guys, it’s just a keloid.

To know more about keloids, go here

* Kala teeka: A black dot usually put by doting parents to avoid the 'evil eye'