A young woman
at the Georgian Hotel felt a cold coming on, so she inspected her throat and
discovered a dozen bumps on the far end of her tongue. I reassured her, but she
wanted a doctor to see them.
I love
housecalls where I know the diagnosis as soon as I hang up the phone. This
qualified because the guest had discovered a normal part of her body. When you
examine your tongue in the mirror, it seems smooth. People rarely stick it out
far enough to reveal a clump of wart-like taste buds deep inside.
I also love
telling a fearful patient that he or she has nothing to worry about, so this
was a satisfying encounter for both of us.
It may save
you some anxiety to memorize the following normal parts of your body.
- Put a
finger inside your mouth and feel the gums behind your lower teeth. Moving just
to the left and right reveals two hard lumps which may not be the same size.
These are part of your mandible, the jawbone.
- With thumb
and forefinger, pinch your neck just below the jaw to feel two lumps that mark
either end of the hyoid bone that circles the front of your windpipe. You can
wiggle them from side to side.
- Run your
finger down the middle of your breastbone to an inch beyond the lower end, then
push. You’ll feel a hard mass. That’s another bone, the xyphoid process. One
guest was certain had a stomach tumor.
- Feel your
major lymph node areas (neck, armpit, groin), and remember what you find. Part
of the immune system, lymph nodes swell in response to an infection then shrink
after it passes - except sometimes a node or two won’t shrink but remains
forever as a pea-sized, moveable granule beneath the skin.
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