There is a strange and unwelcome lump near my wrist.

Antithesis

The title says most of it. It feels like... I don't know, a ball of fat a little more than an eighth of an inch in diameter. It's about six inches away my left wrist. It can move around when I poke it, but only about as much as the surrounding muscle will move. It's below the skin, and all that.

I just sort of found this thing and I don't like... y'know, it being there. Is this a doctor kind of thing, or...?

RUNN1NGMAN

Maybe a lipoma, maybe a cyst, maybe something else. If you don't feel any pain when you press it, it's probably a lipoma. If you don't have a history of them you should see a doctor and get it checked out, because "lump under the skin" can be many things, some harmless and some not so harmless.

Reznik

Does it look like this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganglion_cyst

If so, my mom used to get them and had to get... I think cortisone shots from the doctor? There's a surgery for it that I can't remember if she got or not, but in any case they haven't come back for a few years now.

unilateral

A teacher I had in middle school had something similar to what you're describing. Hers was a ganglion cyst. I remember that she got rid of it by hitting it with an encyclopedia or something. I just wiki'd it though, and not surprisingly, that isn't the recommended method of removal.

I wouldn't say its extremely urgent, but you should probably have it professionally diagnosed and removed.

starmanbrand

Sounds like the lipoma(s? i?) I have. They are below the skin but not connected to anything so pushing them around makes them move and does not result in any discomfort. Removing them would fall under the "Cosmetic surgery" branch, unless you have one that is pressing against a nerve.

If it is a lipoma you could probably give yourself a once over and find some more.

LewieP's Mummy

Its probably a ganglion - hit it with a big book, it will disperse. Lewie's sister has one, our GP agreed we should just hit it, but she's a wuss...

DoctorArch

If it's a ganglion, hitting it with a heavy book is probably not the best course of action, but it does work. When I had one I made sure to massage it with heavy pressure for several days. It eventually just collapsed outright one evening after I applied pressure with my thumb.

DirtyDirtyVagrant

My dad used to call these carbuncles. He would always get rid of them by slamming his wrist onto a countertop or somesuch. I'm not sure if he still gets them. Seemed like an effective treatment.

If that's what it is. If that's not what it is, savagely bludgeoning it may not be a good idea.

E: After a bit of wiki research on what a carbuncle is it would appear that my dad was very very wrong in his classification. Oops.

Trillian

Ganglion cysts are usually hard and painful though, so it could be a lipoma.