My baby nephew grabbed my arm, eager to show me his toy trucks.
“Don’t ever touch me there again!” I snapped.
The confusion and hurt on his face stopped me cold. He couldn’t have known that his tiny hand had caused an intense surge of pain.
For years, I’d experienced a stabbing pain in my forearm when it was touched or exposed to cold. I don’t remember when it started, but even putting on a shirt made me wince if the fabric brushed against the area. A cold breeze could trigger agony that felt like needles pressing deep into muscle and bone.
Snapping at my nephew made me realize I needed help. But when I reported the pain to my primary care doctor, he couldn’t see anything wrong. I could see a tiny bump underneath the skin, but instead of investigating further, he dismissed my concerns as an overreaction.
My pain being dismissed was a regular experience for me as a Black woman. Studieshave shown thatphysicians are more likely to underestimate the pain of Black patients relative to their white counterparts.
“It’s probably just a bump or bruise that’s taking a while to heal,” he offered.
So I waited for it to heal. It never did. Instead, I continued living with the pain.
Eventually, I attempted to self-diagnose the issue, Googling my symptoms and weighing possible causes. I concluded that I was likely suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, which often results in numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand and wrist. It didn’t explain the sharp pain, but at least I felt as if I was addressing the problem.
I wore a wrist splint and tried different stretches and exercises for relief that never came.
Two years later, I saw another primary care doctor for a checkup, hoping for an answer. “Do you type a lot?” he asked.
I nodded. As a full-time student and a writer, I spent a lot of time behind a keyboard.
“Maybe it’s overuse,” he said.
He recommended icing the area and taking a break from my typing habits. But that didn’t work. The pain remained, a searing reminder that something was not OK. Ultimately, each primary care doctor I saw gave me unhelpful diagnoses: a muscle issue, overuse, anxiety – or my imagination.
Over half a decade after I first disclosed my pain to a doctor, another one made a simple suggestion: “Maybe you should see a dermatologist.”
At 25, I had never been to one. I thought dermatologists were for wealthy women chasing eternal youth, and I generally avoided specialists because I didn’t want to put further pressure on my limited budget. “A lot of people skip their annual derm visits because they either ‘feel fine’, think skin issues are purely cosmetic, think skin cancer is not as common as it is, or just don’t realize how important prevention is,”Dr Mamina Turegano, a board certified dermatologist at Sanova Dermatology in Louisiana.
“One of the biggest barriers I see is cost – whether it’s high copays, lack of insurance or out-of-network providers,” she said. “On top of that, dermatologist appointments can be hard to come by, especially in rural areas or underserved communities.” Turegano suggests talking to your insurance company about providers, seeking out community health clinics and asking offices about payment plans or sliding scales.
I needed answers a primary care doctor couldn’t provide, so I called my health insurance provider to ask about coverage. Happily, I discovered that medically necessary dermatology istypically covered by health insurance.
Within a couple of weeks, I was in a dermatologist’s office explaining my symptoms. She gently touched the area and acknowledged the small nodule beneath the skin.
“I’m going to have to open it up and take that out,” she said.
I was shocked – I hadn’t even known dermatologists performed surgery. Moments later, my arm was numb and she made a small diagonal incision over the spot. Then she snipped out a pinkish growth and stitched the skin back up.
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“All done,” she said, dropping the mass into a tube of liquid. “I’ll send this off to the lab.”
Shortly after, I had a diagnosis: a glomus tumor, which is a rare, typically benign growth. (Malignant glomus tumorsare even rarer.) They arise from glomus cells, which help regulate blood flow and temperature. Most often, they develop under fingernails or on fingertips, but they can appear elsewhere – including the forearm. Though tiny, glomus tumors can cause excruciating pain, especially when touched or exposed to cold. Adults aged 30 to 50 are most likely to experience them, but the reason they developremains unknown.
By the time I got this answer, I had seen four different doctors over the span of six years – a delay that mirrors the average experience for many patients with glomus tumors. On average, it takes about seven years for patients to get an accurate diagnosis. In one documented case, thedelay stretched to 40 years.
“Oftentimes, patients are seen by more than one physician before they are able to get a diagnosis,” said Dr Chaitanya Mudgal, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Not for lack of training – just because of how rare and uncommon they are.”
Because glomus tumors are small, benign and unfamiliar to many physicians, they’re frequently misdiagnosed or overlooked.
“Even MRIs often miss them,” Mudgal said. “They can be as small as a couple millimeters, which is why they are hard to see with the naked eye.”
More generally, it’s common for patients to arrive at a specialist’s office after years of having their concerns dismissed.
“I see it more often than I’d like – cases where a rash, growth or pigment change was either misdiagnosed or brushed off by a primary care provider,” said Turagano. “I’ve had patients come in after months, sometimes years, of dealing with something that ends up being a rare autoimmune condition or an unusual presentation of skin cancer. That’s why I always advocate for specialist care when it comes to the skin – dermatologists are trained to spot the subtle stuff that others might miss.”
Most dermatologists are capable of removing glomus tumors located near the skin – as was true in my case. “Skin surgery is a core part of our training,” said Turegano. “We learn how to remove lesions with precision while minimizing scarring and preserving function and aesthetics, especially in delicate areas like the face.”
However, orthopedic surgeons are often best equipped to treat glomus tumors, especially when they are deeper or near bones, nerves or joints. Their knowledge of the musculoskeletal system and access to advanced imaging make them especially effective at spotting growths that might be missed by others – even on MRIs.
Surgical removal typically cures glomus tumors, said Mudgal. However, complete removal can be difficult because they are hard to tell apart from normal tissue.
After the tumor was removed and the incision healed, my pain disappeared. I no longer had to brace myself for the winter breeze or carefully get dressed. I gave birth to my daughter a few months later and wasn’t preoccupied with fear that her touch would cause me to lash out like I once had at my nephew. I felt so much freedom and relief.
The lessons from spending years with a painful, easily curable condition have stayed with me. I always remind family and friends that pain is a real indicator that something is wrong. Even if someone tries to minimize it, it’s worth seeking a definitive diagnosis and treatment.
Tiffanie Drayton is a journalist and author whose work explores health, identity, family and personal transformation