They Froze My Face
I suppose the moral of the story is to get a check-up for skin cancer more than once every four years, but the upshot is that when I finally dragged myself in this Thursday they got out a glorified can of compressed air (nitrogen; thanks Air Liquide!) And froze bits of my face. Now I know what frost-bite is, and that it is good for keeping one pre-cancer-free!
Now I just have to wait for the burn-marks to go away.
Another biopsy; I am lousy at finding interesting bits for the dermatologist to study. "Here," I say, and he is completely disinterested. Then he finds some (to me) harmless-looking imperfection and goes "uh-oh."
"Uh-oh? Uh-oh what?"
"This is an 'uh-oh'. "
He actually said that. I liked his style, which balanced breezy with informative.
Results in two weeks; I fully expect to end up with a larger incision and a scar below my left ear.
Wry Mouth, indeed!
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Now I just have to wait for the burn-marks to go away.
Another biopsy; I am lousy at finding interesting bits for the dermatologist to study. "Here," I say, and he is completely disinterested. Then he finds some (to me) harmless-looking imperfection and goes "uh-oh."
"Uh-oh? Uh-oh what?"
"This is an 'uh-oh'. "
He actually said that. I liked his style, which balanced breezy with informative.
Results in two weeks; I fully expect to end up with a larger incision and a scar below my left ear.
Wry Mouth, indeed!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
He does indeed sound breezy and informative. I also think it shows he is thorough and competent and trustworthy. Hope the burn marks are not still stinging, Wry. I recall liquid nitrogen looking all frozen-crystally, but it feels unexpectedly hot when applied. In yer corner.
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I don't think it was liquid nitrogen; I feel that would be a bit extreme... I've seen the frozen banana-hammer trick and wouldn't want to try that with any stray piece of my own body, let alone the face... it was like being sprayed half-heartedly with one a those dust-blower cans of air, or a can of WD-40. The spots browned up a little, a lot like a wind-burned area.
Perhaps Scotland is not a place where wind-burn is endemic, but then I would have to say I imagine that wind-burn is like getting frost-bitten -- although there *I* have no experience!
Yes; very cold, as C.S. Lewis once observed about a cold bath he was compelled to take, feels like very hot. At least on my face.
***
As for the word "biopsy," I found it much more skeery in the Olden Days, when I was Younger. Now? Not so much, although I know it means Dr. Shylock is going to shave off another few grams of flesh, once one is properly anesthetized ya can't feel a thing and you can always close your eyes. Later, the insult will sting a bit but honestly -- I can't complain in the face of such minor inconveniences. Plus, science is cool!
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Yeah - science is so cool, it is hot! Mayhap liquid nitrogen is at the core of that saying. The village doctor once sent for liquid nitrogen to freeze a foot verruca, which came courtesy of our new swimming pool. It came from Inverness, in a silver vacuum flask (the nitrogen, not the verruca:) ) and the GP performed, with great enthusiasm, the banana hammer trick upon the daffodils he filched from the waiting-room. I was less enthralled than he'd hoped, though, watching them shatter, as although only ten years old, I could visualise what the outcome would be for my future mobility if he did not keep a steady hand.
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