How I Went Under The Knife To Remove My Lipoma

Recently, I underwent a day surgical procedure to remove a lipoma on my neck for almost two years.

A lipoma is a benign tumor consist of fatty tissue.

In medical parlance, lipoma is considered harmless but a slight bump is evident on my right neck. At the insistence of my mother, I agreed to have it removed. She feared that it might become malignant.

The entire process began two months ago in August after a visit to the neighborhood polyclinic to get a referral letter and an appointment date at a hospital of my choice. Getting a referral via the polyclinic could offset a significant portion of the cost the hospital would normally charge.

Fast forward to October, I dutifully went for my appointment at Clinic C, Singapore General Hospital. The staff were generally helpful but the number of patients were too many so I had to wait for a long time before my turn. Interestingly, the hospital now has an innovative way to inform patients of their turns. I receive an sms when I'm fourth in line to see the medical officer.

The medical officer basically gave me a rudimentary examination, a diagnosis and a proposal of treatment by surgery. I was then promptly send to schedule a surgery date with the nurse.

Two weeks later, I found myself lying on the surgery table with my back facing up and my head turned right to expose my right neck. At that moment, deep regret for conceding to the surgery did cross my mind as I'd never experience someone holding a knife so near to my neck before. Fortunately, I wouldn't be able to see because the nurses covered me up in hospital cloth with only my neck exposed.

Anesthetics were administered locally so I didn't feel any pain. However, I could tell when the scalpel was cutting in as there was a lot of pressure and then the sound of suction (presumably to suck away blood?).

There was a single moment when the scalpel cut up a part of my skin that was probably not well anesthetized and I felt a searing excruciating pain. When I told the surgeon how I felt, that area was anesthetized again and the pain went away.

Except for that, the surgery otherwise went smoothly. The stitching was also quite painful. The doc told me that since it was a deep cut, they had to sew up from the inside and then the outside. I overheard the surgeon chatting with his nurses about his choice of stitching thread as he went along. He likes to use thread that self dissolved. Yey! That meant I didn't have to get the stitches removed.

I couldn't remember how long was the procedure but later found out it lasted about 45 minutes. Right after the surgery, I was talking with the surgeon. I asked to be shown the removed lipoma which would be sent for pathological testing. The surgeon described it to be 3 cm by diameter. The lump of yellow fat looked like an egg yolk with blood trails on the surface. I very much wanted to take a snap shot of it and post it here but unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring in my phone camera into the operation theater.

That was the last time I saw my lipoma after it was lodged in my neck for 2 years.

Today was the follow-up appointment. I returned to Clinic C and met with another medical officer. It was another long afternoon of waiting. This medical officer was as prompt as the previous. She just gave my surgery wound a cursory examination, told me that my lump wasn't cancerous and promptly discharge me.


Oct 6: Taken just after the surgery. My wound was dressed by a big woolly waterproof bandage

Oct 11: Taken 4 days after the surgery, the external bandage has been removed. The wound is still covered by small strips of bandage. The faint but visible blue circle was marked by the surgeon to indicate the lipoma lump and where to incise


Oct 22: Taken after the follow-up examination. The remaining bandage were removed. The wound was swabbed clean with alcohol. It looks like the stitching had healed well. What is left is a 2.5 inch stitch