The ones at my sideburns were usually treated by a doctor with a small incision, until I came to China and the doctors decided that it was time for hardcore surgery. The end result was not all that beautiful with a scar of about 7cm long.

That experience let me to walk with the lump under my eye for about 3 years until the sight of it was absolutely gross. Then someone told me that the Xiehe Hospital in Beijing could do a cosmetic surgery on it, so there would hardly be any scar left as end result. I decided to go for it and it was a much better experience and result than the previous sideburn surgery.

A couple of days ago another of these lumps (they are actually sebaceous cysts) flared up in my earlobe and yesterday I tried to get rid of it myself. I bought a razor blade, disinfected both the blade and my ear and asked Mia to cut it open.

Well… that didn’t work. So a trip to the hospital became therefore inevitable (something Mia had tried to persuade me to do from the beginning).

I will try to describe the procedure that followed. First disinfection of the area and then some outside applied anesthetic (I think it was fluid nitrogen to numb the area a bit). Then the surgeon made the incision and was surprised my the wave of pus and blood that erupted. The female surgeon and 2 male nurses – yup 6 hands – then did their best to remove everything from my little earlobe, pushing and pulling and more cutting.

They said that they have removed everything and placed a gaze in the hole and I have to go back to the hospital every day for the next 7 days to get it renewed.

[as described on Wikipedia:] …the resulting hole is filled with an antiseptic ribbon after washing it with an iodine based solution. This is then covered with a field dressing. The ribbon and the dressing are to be changed once or twice daily for 7-10 days after which the incision is sewed up.

They promised me that there is a very good chance that afterwards I will be forever cured from these cysts in my left earlobe!

Still have others though in my right earlobe and in the general area of my face…