Lump on my wrist

So I’ve got this little bump on my right hand between my ring and middle finger, plus a much bigger one on my wrist—about half an inch wide. I spent nine months waiting for an appointment with an orthopedist (seriously, the orthopedic department in Fresno is hands down the slowest in the country), just for him to tell me they’re just unknown cysts. He said there’s no point messing with them because they usually just grow back, especially since they're sitting right under some major blood vessels and nerves, making surgery a bad call. Apparently, they just happen when joint fluid leaks through a membrane. He even mentioned that sometimes people try to fix them by hitting them with something like a meat tenderizer until the membrane pops and the fluid either gets absorbed or moves back into the joint. It can be annoying physically, like a weird pressure or even moderate pain sometimes. My bumps actually shrank a bit over time, especially last year after I did a ton of cycling—I guess all that vibration on the handlebars helps?
Maybe you're dealing with the same thing, but you should probably hit up a GP first. They can feel it, get a rough idea of what it is, and then send you for a hand ultrasound to confirm everything before referring you to an orthopedist to figure out a game plan.
Most places will offer aspirations, but everyone says they do them three times and the damn things just pop right back up in the same spot.

So, after a few days, everything seems to be staying the same size, shape, and firmness... plus, there's no pain or discomfort at all. I'm going to head in to see my doctor soon just to get their take on things. Thanks everyone for the replies and all the help 🙂

Hey there!
So, I’ve had this hard lump on the back of my hand for about 10 years now. My doctor told me not to sweat it unless it starts hurting. It used to ache every once in a while, then it would settle down... but this summer, the lump actually grew a bit, which really spooked me. And yeah, it does hurt occasionally. I went in for an X-ray, and everything looked fine. The report basically said: X-ray images of the left hand show normal mineralization of the visible bones. No signs of bone trauma, joint surfaces look congruent, and there are no signs of inflammatory or degenerative processes in the joints. As for the soft tissue, there’s no thickening that correlates with that bump. After that, I had an ultrasound done, and the results showed the RC joint with no effusion or synovial proliferation. All six compartments of the extensor tendons at the level of the RC joint look good—no fluid around them, and they seem intact. However, right where you can feel the lump, the ultrasound showed some irregularity on the bone surface of the CMC III joint, along with a small anechoic oval cyst sitting above the bone, measuring about 0.42x0.20 cm, with no inflammatory blood flow detected via PDL.
The recommendation was to get an MRI of the hand if things change (like if it keeps growing or the pain gets worse).
My question is: does anyone know what this could actually be? Is it even possible for something like chondrosarcoma to show up on an X-ray or an ultrasound?

Does anyone happen to know what those unknown things actually feel like? If they have a gelatinous texture, is it possible for them to feel hard?
Is there any pain involved?
I took this photo of my dad's wrist. Two weeks ago, he had this soft swelling that was painful to the touch. Now, the lump has turned quite firm, and it hurts whenever he tries to bend his hand or move his thumb. We’re definitely heading to the doctor, but I’d love to hear from anyone who might recognize what this could be.

Just adding my two cents here—I went through this exact thing last year. Turns out I just overdid it and strained my wrist way too hard. I was trying to pry open a stubborn fence, and when it wouldn't budge, I ended up slamming my hand against it... total rookie mistake. Right after that, the pain kicked in, and I actually developed this weird, balloon-like swelling right on my wrist. I didn't bother seeing a doctor or anything; it just kind of cleared up on its own after about two weeks. It hurt like hell for a while, but I’m fine now. These days, if I need to move a fence, I use my foot or find some tool to leverage it instead 😁 definitely not using my bare hands 😁

Honestly, if your dad is doing any kind of manual labor with that hand, he really needs to take it easy. In my experience, it’s so much harder to heal when you keep aggravating the injury... basically, you aren't giving the tissue a chance to actually recover.

It looks like this matches what was mentioned in the article above. Thanks for the help! 😁
Since he has a physically demanding job, he can't really afford to have his hand out of commission, so I’m really hoping this just clears up on its own. Based on what others have shared, things usually return to normal after the procedure.
I'll make sure to tell him to stay away from those fences.

So, I was looking into this earlier—a ganglion is that soft, squishy lump you get on your wrist, right? But I’ve been trying to figure out what we call a carpal boss here in the States—you know, that hard, bony protrusion on the wrist that feels almost exactly like a ganglion, except it's solid as a rock. Does anyone actually have a specific name for that?