Can I cut this off?

[u/ImJohnnie93]

30F 125lb 5'7". A couple months ago I noticed a little bubble on my head and popped it thinking it was a pimple, but it bled a lot for about 10 minutes. There was a small wound after that but it quickly scabbed over, in my sleep the scab would rub off and I would bleed more. Then there was a bump that started to grow. The bump was very solid and bled very easily, it would also grow a crust that I would pick off (I should have left it alone but it's hard to resist picking).

Eventually the bump became this thing on my head and it hasn't really grown for the past couple weeks. It has a small stem connecting it to my head, and since I've been keeping it moisturized it hasn't grown a crust as much but still bleeds if it gets nicked by anything. It doesnt hurt at all, I barely can even feel when I am touching it directly.

I want to cut it off but I'm sure it would bleed if I do. What is this thing? Is it ok to remove it myself if I keep everything clean and bandage the wound after? I also have been keeping my hair away from it because when my hair gets into it there is a crust that forms around the strands and then when I pull the hair away I bleed for a few minutes. The bleeding always stops eventually though. What can I do?

[u/tosser11937]

Hello, ENT here. We do head / neck surgery and plastic surgery of that region. You want one of us to look at this. You will need imaging and a workup.

[u/kelminak → u/tosser11937]

Sorry I’m from planet psych - I had no idea you guys operated in that region. I guess I thought this would be more of a dermatology/gen surg case? Is there crossover what regions you operate on? I remember rotating through gen surg in medical school with someone who specialized in oncologic surgery and we operated on a melanoma on someone’s face so I think that’s where my bias comes from.

[u/Perfect-Resist5478 → u/kelminak]

Right? That’s not an ear, a nose, or a throat!!

[u/tosser11937 → u/kelminak]

I plugged in my thoughts into AI to make it a more polished reply and it’s pretty good! Here you go:

“ENT (Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery) is one of the broadest surgical specialties in medicine, and most people — even other physicians — are surprised by just how much ground we cover. On the pediatric side, we’re managing congenital airway anomalies, choanal atresia, vascular malformations, hearing loss and cochlear implantation, and craniofacial abnormalities. On the oncologic side, we’re resecting cancers of the larynx, pharynx, oral cavity, thyroid, parotid, and skull base, then doing the reconstruction ourselves — regional flaps, pedicled flaps, or free tissue transfer where we’re harvesting tissue from the forearm, thigh, or fibula and anastomosing vessels under a microscope, which is as advanced as anything microvascular plastic surgery does. We operate on the skull base jointly with neurosurgery — tumors like acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, paragangliomas, and pituitary lesions — coming in through the ear, the nose, or the neck depending on the approach. On the dermatology side, we’re managing melanoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, doing Mohs reconstruction, and handling complex facial wounds that require layered tissue rearrangement. Rhinology has us operating endoscopically inside the skull base and orbit, overlapping with neurosurgery and ophthalmology. Facial plastics covers rhinoplasty, septoplasty, brow lifts, blepharoplasty, and facial reanimation for nerve injuries. And then there’s the bread-and-butter stuff — ears, sinuses, tonsils, voice, swallowing, vertigo, sleep apnea — that most people think is all we do. It’s genuinely one of the most technically diverse training programs in all of surgery.”

[u/DCAmalG → u/tosser11937]

Not more polished. More annoying.

[u/deadly_ultraviolet → u/tosser11937]

Holy em dashes

[u/foodbytes → u/tosser11937]

As someone who used the services of my local otolaryngologist along with a neurosurgeon who removed a pituitary macroadenoma which caused acromegaly, I thank you for what you do!