Matthew 8:2 And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy (skin disease/cancer) was cleansed.
Today, well, today as I’m writing this, probably a month or so ago now as you are reading it; or a year if you’ve just found the blog; I had an appointment with a dermatologist. The new ENT Doc Pat had said she would make a referral, but that it would be 18-months or more before I would get an appointment.
Two-months later someone called to set up an appointment for the following week. I asked if she was sure, explaining that it hadn’t been 18-months. The receptionist told me that they hired another dermatologist.
Typical northern Maine weather, we had snow and freezing rain the night before the appointment. As I scraped the ice off my windshield and windows, I was hoping I wouldn’t be too late for the appointment. Since you always have to sit and wait before they take you in anyway, I figured I’d be fine.
The nurse called me in and asked a few questions, why are you here?, anything strange going on? Then she asked what I had that caused the referral. I answered, ‘I had an operation for basal cell carcinoma,’ and she asked, ‘where?’
Pointing to my new and improved nose bump, I said, “you mean here, on my nose, or here at this hospital?” Apparently the answer was good enough because she didn’t ask any clarifying questions.
A few minutes later the doc came in and introduced himself. He asked me where I grew up and what I did for work. Assuming what he really wanted to know was about my sun exposure, I told him about my childhood farm days working in the fields and sun. He looked at me like he wanted a longer resume so I told him I taught Home Economics for years.
Somewhat bluntly, he asked me how old I was. I thought I should say, ‘Doc, don’t you know you aren’t supposed to ask a woman her age?!?, it’s not very polite,’ but I figured he could look at my file and do the math, so I said, “well Doc, for years I’ve been 29!!”
He explained that this would be like a baseline appointment for the next couple years and if there are no changes he would lengthen the time between appointments. In the meantime, including today, if I noticed any skin changes in sizes, colors or bleeding, to call for an appointment and he’d get me in sooner.
I told him I was blogging about the appointment and might take some pictures. He didn’t seem overly excited about being in the nose bump blog, can you believe that!?!, and continued, telling me that he was going to start ‘dictating’ now. Once, when he paused to take a breath, I said, “that doesn’t sound like English?”
He heard my question and replied, “it’s Latin.”
This guy is an old age brown spot.
Who knew there were so many different nose, aka, skin, bumps?
I know I actually posted links during May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month a while back and tried to select different skin bumps that were cancers to inform folks, but really didn’t think I might have a few different skin bumps to monitor.
This guy, although sometimes something to watch, is from when I missed the nail and hit my thumb with a hammer while winterizing recently.
While he was dictating Latin and looking at my arm, he said, “I did some sewing a couple weeks ago.” I asked, “what did you sew, your name on a new doctor’s lab coat?” He laughed and said what it was and that he’d learned to sew years ago in his Home Economics class.
He did discover a suspicious bump or spot on my hand and asked how long it had been there. I said, “you know Doc, that’s a good question.” I didn’t know. He said he’d take a scrape and send it to the lab. If it’s anything that needs attention, he’d call me back and take care of it.
Like my original doc, he got out a needle that didn’t look like my sewing needles, numbed the area and took a scrape, pretty much exactly like I had scraped the ice off my windshield earlier in the day. I said I wanted a picture, but he was busy watching what he was doing. So I got one after the scrape.
Toward the end of the Latin exam, he said, “overall your skin looks great for a 29-year old!!”
Before he left, I asked him where he lived. He said, “New York City.”
I questioned, “are you sure Doc, that’s quite a commute every day?” He clarified that he goes back and forth between cities.
The Nose Bump 