Thursday 28 January 2010

HEALTH: SLICING MY FLESH

Now that I've got your attention, I came down with yet another cold a few days ago for the second time in three weeks and it's only just beginning to dry up tonight.

As for slicing flesh, let me explain... Apparently as part of the aging process some of us develop small blobby or stringy bits of flesh in various parts of the body. They aren't harmful, just a tad unsightly. I had one of my  neck for quite a while before it got scratched, or something. It hardened into pretty much a lump of scab and I pinched it off with my fingernails. No blood and any mark quickly faded.

Now I also had a larger tag, a blob shape,  on the inside of my right thigh which I mentioned to my doctor who said she'd quite happily remove it in the surgery. About a year later, she and I finally got round to it. Today.

I thought it would be just a quick snip with surgical scissors -I'd put some anaesthetic cream on an hour earlier. But no. I lay back on the couch while she covered it with some surgical gauze, put some other stuff on it, and then got out what looked like a tiny electric scalpel. She had already told me not to look to which I replied that I couldn't see over my stomach anyway. It must have taken about five minutes which surprised me. It surprised her too as it proved tougher to cut through and cut away completely than she'd expected. When she finally finished, she popped this bloody and larger lump than I'd anticipated into a small dish. It would then be sent away for testing, purely as a formality. Following cauterisation of the wound, on went some silver nitrate (I think) and was told to keep it dry for a couple of days.

And that was it. Didn't really hurt apart from a couple of twinges and we were chatting all the way through.

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