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DevilsAdvocate
6th November 2010, 12:37 AM
We have all seen cartoons where some crazy critter bops another critter on the head with a mallet and a long, throbbing bump grows out of the bopped critter’s head. It is a carton standard, but we never seem to see such a thing in real life or even think about what sort of medical condition these cartoons are representing.

I happen to have just such an actual bump on my head, but I don’t know what it is. I do know what caused it.

I was about 9 o r10 years old. My mother took me and some other kids to swimming lessons at an area high school. One week, after the swimming lesson, we were particularly rambunctious. This was about 6 or 7 boys. As we got close tot the entrance of the school, we started snapping towels at each other. The entrance had about six doors across. The entrance used what I call “weather lock” doors (I don’t know the actual term) where it had 6 exterior doors, then a space of about 15 feet, followed by another 6 interior doors (so that interior heating/air conditioning is not lost). The exterior doors were always closed, but for some reason the interior doors were always kept open.

We were getting a bit wild. We were snapping towels at each other. I got a few kids good. Then they ganged up on me. I was running backwards to get away from them but still be able to snap back. They got the advantage and I was getting close to the doors, so I decide to turn and run out the doors. It turned out I was already at the doors.

When I turned to run, I ran head first right into a door frame. I hit my forehead hard. Everything went black, but it was probably just for few moments. I fell back, onto the ground, and went into convulsions and started flopping around. I remember my mother telling me to stop joking around. I wasn’t joking, but I couldn’t speak. Eventually (it seemed like forever, but was probably only a few seconds) some of the kids helped me up.

I don’t remember feeling any pain. I was a bit dazed, but didn’t feel injured. The next morning I had a nice lump on my forehead.

I still have that lump. It has never been a problem. It is about an inch tall and a half inch wide. It doesn’t stick out much. It happens to be right where my skull has a natural curve, so it blends in. Nobody has ever commented on it, even though I have a habit of rubbing it. People probably just think I’m in deep thought. Actually I’m thinking, “What is this bump on my head?”

So, after all these decades, I actually want to know:

What is this bump on my head? :confused:

Aepervius
6th November 2010, 01:30 AM
That's a good question. I have got one too. Maybe the blood accumulating and a bit of the bone swelling ? I dunno.

theneedtoknow
6th November 2010, 03:37 AM
Hmm...I have never even thought about this, but I have gotten several of these bumps in my childhood. I've hit my head many times, and then I get this big protruding bump which went away after a day or two. I tried google translating the Bulgarian word for it to English, but it doesn't seem to be in their dictionary. Is there another word for this other than just "bump on the head"?

Halfcentaur
6th November 2010, 03:41 AM
The few times in my experience as a mammal that I've slammed my head into something, I got a pretty big bump on the head.

commandlinegamer
6th November 2010, 07:57 AM
Clouseau: You have received a beump on the head.
Dreyfus: Beump?
Clouseau: What?
Dreyfus: You said beump.
Clouseau: Yes, I know that. It is a large beump. You could receive the concussion from such a beump.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058586/

rjh01
6th November 2010, 02:44 PM
A quick google gives this page http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_a_medium-sized_bump_on_the_back_of_your_head_normal

It contains many answers.

DevilsAdvocate
6th November 2010, 11:28 PM
The only reasonable sounding explanation that I’ve been able to find is this:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/76580.html

You know that you get a bump or a bruise because you break small blood
vessels under the skin and the blood pools causing discoloration and
swelling in the surrounding tissue. As the blood clot (hematoma)
breaks down it gets reabsorbed and disappears. If you bumped yourself
hard enough to damage the tissues beneath this, you've graduated from
a bruise to a contusion. If it's on your skull, the bone may be injured. Bone
is living tissue that has blood vessels and layers of cells. Smashing
into this can hurt your skull with out causing a fracture. Sometimes,
as the bone heals, it will get thicker in the damaged area. The same
way your skin might form a scar. That's why you sometimes wind up with
a knot that doesn't go away.That sounds right, I guess. I've never really thought of bone like that. The bump certainly feels like bone and doesn't move or change or have any other unusual quality. So I guess it is like a "bone scar".

Toke
7th November 2010, 12:17 AM
You don't say if the bump is movable like the rest of the skin on the head.

It could be a scar/bump in the tissue/skin.
I have one of those on my left heel from where I got my foot into the rear wheel of my mothers bicycle as a small kid. It is about 1cm in diameter and 0.5cm high.

DevilsAdvocate
7th November 2010, 05:05 AM
It is non-moveable. It just feels just like the shape of the skull.

jasonpatterson
7th November 2010, 10:26 AM
Hmm...I have never even thought about this, but I have gotten several of these bumps in my childhood. I've hit my head many times, and then I get this big protruding bump which went away after a day or two. I tried google translating the Bulgarian word for it to English, but it doesn't seem to be in their dictionary. Is there another word for this other than just "bump on the head"?

I'm sure there's a specific medical term for it in English (like any other condition) but as far as what any person would actually call it, 'bump on the head' is spot on.

I Ratant
7th November 2010, 10:39 AM
Many years ago I had two of those.
One just grew, the other developed after a head bump.
I had both removed.
Sebaceous cyst was the diagnosis.
Just big lumpy looking things which interfered with combing my hair.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebaceous_cyst

edona7
7th November 2010, 12:06 PM
Rarely, a hematoma (collection of blood under the skin or the periosteum, the lining over the bone) will calcify rather that be reabsorbed. If the bump is immobile, I would suspect it might be a calcified hematoma. But there are all sorts of possibilities, many totally unrelated to the trauma.

Drae
7th November 2010, 03:03 PM
My dad got a bump on his head not too long ago after accidentally slamming it against something and it turned out to be a synovial sarcoma. I don't know if something like that could hang around for as long as the bump on your head has without causing a whole hell of a lot of problems, though.

Skeptic Ginger
7th November 2010, 10:36 PM
That's a good question. I have got one too. Maybe the blood accumulating and a bit of the bone swelling ? I dunno.Those would have resolved long ago.

Connective tissue, OTOH, can grow the same way some people get keloid scars when the rest of us get regular scars. When it is under the dermis, it's called a fibroma. Or it could consist of excess bone like Devil's Advocate's link describes. Same process, sort a an excessive scar formation.

It could also be a false memory that the bump on the head and the past injury incident are related.

And there are other things which cause bumps on our bodies from bone spurs to lipomas and other benign tumors. Lipomas are soft so that doesn't sound like what you have. If it hasn't grown in years and it doesn't hurt, chances are you can safely ignore it. If it bothers you then you should see someone about it.

Skeptic Ginger
7th November 2010, 10:39 PM
My dad got a bump on his head not too long ago after accidentally slamming it against something and it turned out to be a synovial sarcoma. I don't know if something like that could hang around for as long as the bump on your head has without causing a whole hell of a lot of problems, though.That's pretty rare, especially on the head as opposed to a leg or arm. I wouldn't rule it out but wouldn't put it high on the list. They grow slowly but they do grow and the OP bump sounds like it's been there a long time without growing.

Also, sometimes trauma just calls attention to things like tumors, rather than causing the tumor. It seem to the patient that the trauma caused the tumor, but it was just that the tumor wasn't noticed until the injury.

Skeptic Ginger
7th November 2010, 10:52 PM
Rarely, a hematoma (collection of blood under the skin or the periosteum, the lining over the bone) will calcify rather that be reabsorbed. If the bump is immobile, I would suspect it might be a calcified hematoma. But there are all sorts of possibilities, many totally unrelated to the trauma.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one. A possibility for sure.