Anyone had a ganglion drained?

[Thunderwing]

I have a ganglion on my wrist which I've had for a number of years. In recent months it's grown bigger and more painful and is now really affecting the range of movement.

I'm thinking of seeing the doc about getting it drained but I've heard that it's not always effective in getting rid of it.

Anyone have any experience?

I had one on my finger - strange pregnancy side effect. I had it drained with a local anaesthetic. Was very quick and straight forward. Sorted it straight out and have had no problems since.

I had one on my wrist for years it kept changing size, sometimes it was big and got in the way sometimes it would shrink. I got it drained twice and it returned both times. Eventually it just went away all by itself.

yes, but it returned.
it's gone down over the years, but that wrist is still my weak wrist (can't do pressups for example) and occassionally hurts if I do a lot, like riding a bike or gardening.

I have one on my wrist too. It actually popped/ruptured/something just before Christmas when a football hit my hand at speed and snapped my wrist back. It's coming back now though, getting painful again. The Dr I saw (before it popped) said it's a 50/50 chance of them coming back if you get them drained.

Wrist ones seem common. Why is that?

What you need to do is get someone to hit it REALLY, REALLY hard with a baking tray. Sounds mad but it works.

I was once told I had one on my wrist and gp wanted to hit it with a book! I refused to let her which was a good thing as it turned out I have inflammatory arthritis (causing the odd lumps) and hitting my arthritic wrist with a book wouldn't have helped.

Hitting them with anything just temporarily pops them, as it did to mine, spreading the liquid out. It doesn't get rid of them.

I fell & when I put my hands out to break the fall, the ganglion disappeared afterwards. That was years ago so think popping mine got rid of it permanently (although that could be because of the force it was jolted with as I'm a lot heavier than a book!)

Thanks everyone, the pain kept me awake most of the night so I'm seeing a doctor later today.

If she comes at me with a book I'll be telling her to back off I've read it's not a good thing to try and burst them in this way and tbh I'd rather have the needle!