"It's not a tumor."

It's not a tumor.

It's a pair of cysts.

When I first noticed them on the back of my hand, they were smaller, and I thought they were bug bites. Still there months later, they began to concern me. Their shape hasn't changed much, however the more I've fussed with them, the bigger they've gotten. 

I had made bets with the x-ray and ultrasound technicians that these were alien lifeforms ready to hatch as a grand finale for the year that has been 2020, but the surgeon I met with last week insists they're benign and virtually harmless. He's seen these a million time before, and he says if I want them gone, they have to be removed via surgery.

His nurse called me today to schedule a surgery date.

"I was thinking," I told her, "that if there's no urgency, I'd like to wait until there's a COVID vaccine."

"YES!" she blurted into the phone. "I mean, yes, that makes a lot of sense."

I made a health care professional spontaneously cheer today.