Anyone had a lipoma removed? (MRI, cysts, pain, hernia)

[Amazonchix]

I have a lipoma in my right outer upper arm/shoulder area. At first, I wanted it out for vanity reasons...it's getting bigger. Now, I'm pretty sure it is starting to press on a nerve. Has anyone ever had one removed?

I've already spoken to the plastic surgery doc that will be doing the procedure. He will take it out by lipo suction. The incision will be on the outer edge of my arm. I'm waiting till the end of fall or winter to have it done. I'm an outdoors person...and I don't want to take the chance of the sun making my scar worse.

I know scaring is very individual...but did you scar? Anything I should keep in mind?

THANKS!

[mare54]

hi, I just came upon this forum and I wanted to let you know that I had a huge lipoma removed from my upper right arm. I first noticed a small little lump, the size of a pea, in 1982...Obviously, it grew slowly... It was actually pressing on a vein and it formed a lump, almost like a rupture in a tire innertube, on my lower arm....the surgeon thought that it was also a small lipoma till she opened it up. It had to be repaired and the lipoma was the size of a baseball. The reason I waited so long to have it removed was because I was told by numerous doctors that, since it didn't pose a danger and was just a cosmetic concern, that my health insurance wouldn't cover it....well, my daughter is a nurse practitioner and she told me to just tell the doctor that it was painful.....well, viola', it worked. It was removed in Feb '08 and it DID leave a scar. My daughter works at a plastic surgery facility and she said that there is a laser treatment that can lighten it...but I have to stay out of the sun during the lasering. I hope this helps you and best wishes to you...Mare

[mal7014]

I had one removed and there is a small scar. I prefer the scar to the lump.

[Pikantari]

I had one removed on my inner thigh. It was getting close to the size of a small egg. What remains is about a pencil eraser sized lump where the lipoma was. I have no idea why that remains, but you can see a very small scar running across it. Whenever you have something that can be a potential scar, you can pop open a Vitamin E capsule and put it directly on the area. I did this with another surgery and it worked well.

I still have scars, but they are much lighter than one would think they wold be.

[Steve Bagu]

Lipoma can abe a pain in the you know what if in a specific location. Had (5) over the yrs. I'm prone to get them as my system reacts accordingly. Had (3) on the neck area...(1) on the previous hernia repair (thought I was having another hernia) she (MD) said it was probably another Lipoma...(1) was on the forearm that had a black spot inside it which biopsy showed negative for cancer. Was told that nature has a way of depositing unwanted substance into a Lipoma lump of fatty tissue. Oh well, still going strong so I'm not worried. Steve

[Amazonchix]

Thanks for the feedback! I have surgery coming up in about two weeks. I need to correct what I wrote earlier. The plastic surgeon is going to use Ultra Sound to liquify the lipoma within the sack and then pull the sack out. He is going to make a small incision as opposed to the old school large one to pull out my mass. I know there is a chance I will scar and realistically I guess I will. I swear my mass started out as large marble and is now the size of a tennis ball within a matters of a fews years. It's time for this thing to come out! I've had to start sleeping on the opposite side to stop the pain/numbness caused if I sleep on my shoulder/upper arm with the lipoma. I also learned I have a very small one on my back (size of a quarter). The plastic surgeon told me to leave that one alone for now b/c of the extremely high rate of scaring that occurs on the back. As for insurance...that was a good idea posted earlier and the pain part is true for me now...but my health insurance is catastrophy and will only pick up after X amount of $. My surgery is cheaper than my deductible.

[cb at sea]

Yeah, I had one on my hip--it was pea-sized, but it was right under where the leg band on my undies went--it was annoying! 2 stitches--not a big deal. They numbed the area, and it took about 2 minutes. No scar!

[Mary Tofanelli]

I had a Lipoma (about the size of a lemon) surgically removed from my upper right arm because it was causing pain. It was entwined in the arm muscle. It's now been six weeks since the surgery and I am having horrible pain radiating from the incision area shooting up and down my arm and across my shoulder into my neck. My doctor says I might have this pain for months until the nerves grow back together. The pain occurs off and on all the time but is much worse at night. It's so bad at night that it wakes me up from a sound sleep. Sometimes its a stabbing shooting sharp pain and sometimes it's an ache coming from the area of the incision. The doctor has me taking Vicodin and a sleep aid.

The pain level hasn't improved since the surgery six weeks ago.

This does not seem right. Has anyone had a similar experience and did it subside?

[parkerjo]

I just want to take a few minutes to respond to this post. Several years ago I had a place on my face that the docs told me was a subacious cysts and not to worry..would be cosmetic surgery, so I let it go for 9 years. I relocated back to my home town and the doctor there saw it and freaked...it was the size of a half dollar. I know this is not about lipomas, but i am getting there. lol. Removed and was told that it had grown back into my jaw very deep, I could feel inside my mouth. Then I had another cysts in an area not comfortable (if you know what I mean). Gyno said, "awww, you can have it out or not". I thinking that this not supposed to be there, said take it out. He came out of surgery and told my dad, good thing she had it out, it had grown way back in her and could not be detected by the outer surface dimensions. They had to cut me open to get it out...suppose to be a little incision....yeah right. After that I one day realized I had a knot on my shoulder. Ok, now to the lipoma. MRI run and was told not to worry, lipoma, and could have it all my life with no problems. After 4 years it grew so large that I could not lift my arm. Returnd to the same doc and he wanted to say bursitus was the problem and not the tumor. People began to ask what was on my shoulder because it was so large that they could see through my clothes. After cortisone shots..no relieve. I demanded that it be taken out because I knew it was my problem. Doc said that he would take out, but I needed to understand that the tumor was not causing the problem. I said ok whatever, JUST take it out. They had to cut longer and deeper than they origianlly thought they would. Nice huge scar I have on my shoulder. Doc still would not admit was the problem even tho they could not tell me the dimensions because they had to go into the muscle and scrape it out...it was not in one piece in other words. They broke my bone to stop it from rubbing again my rotating cuff and smoothed it up. Told cuff was very worn. So, almost 2 years after the surgery, yesterday, I saw through my shirt that the same shoulder looked like it had a huge place on it. Well, friends looked at it and said your left shoulder is much larger and I can see the knot. Soooo, I think here I go again. It does hurt when I lift my arm, and that is how the last one started out to cause me to get to where I could not lift my arm at all. So, back to the doc I will go.

I know this is long, but I just wanted to say to all, in my opinion it is best to get these things out while they are small and can be done most likely in the office rather than letting them go until they cause major problems, requiring major surgery. They do grow and they do cause terrible pain to some people. But, (I am not degrading docs) doctors want to hesitate to remove them because they are benign and say can live with them for the rest of life.

Each of my cysts and lipoma turned out to be really large and caused problems. The one in my face was causing permanent damage to my face as it was causing my face to droop. Surgeon freaked when he saw it.

I hope this helps someone out there, and i am not a doctor, and am not giving any medical advice to anyone, just my opinion. Please see a doctor if you have any knots to appear and get an MRI to see if they are, in fact, lipomas or cysts that are both benign.

[Amazonchix]

Thought I would update with my experience to add to the helpful one previously posted. I would agree with the previous poster, as soon as you realize the lipoma is getting bigger, I would have it removed before it gets too big. I have one the size of a quarter on my back...as soon I realize it is getting bigger I will have it taken out. The plastic doctor told me the back is prone to scaring.

My lipoma grew to the size of a tennis ball and I truly believe it affected my arm in the fact it sent pain and caused numbness. The surgeon told me the lipoma was not the source of my pain/numbness as he couldn't understand what nerves it was affecting. My incision is only an inch long. Although my plastics guy said he would use ultrasound, he ended up liposuctioning it out and then pulling the outer lipoma sack out. I never asked why he switched procedures on me...I wish I did b/c I was a tad frustrated that he didn't run the change by me. I opted for local anesthetics so I was awake through the entire procedure that was maybe 30 minutes long.

My arm was very sore after the initial anesthetics wore off. I did have to take pain rx's to manage the intensity of the pain. My arm also swelled significantly...also normal. How do people get liposuction on their bodies (ouch)...I only had that on a small section of arm. I thought I would be able to return to physical exercise by my second day post op and I was so wrong. I started walking on the treadmill by post op day four. It took me a week to return to running...and I played it safe and didn't return to tennis for three weeks. My pain/numbness has disappeared! So far everything looks great and I'm not 90 days out yet. I was forewarned of the risk that the lipoma could return if all of the lipoma's sack wasn't removed. He feels like he was able to get all of it...I hope that is truly the case.

On a side note, I had a friend who had a lipoma in a similar location (on her shoulder) and it too caused her pain. With that said, my friend's scare was approximately 6 inches long as she had the standard surgical extraction procedure.