I drove our freshly repaired van through the freezing cold morning to my appointment. I was pretty nervous about breaking down, but I didn’t, thank goodness. Traffic was heavy right downtown, and parking was nuts. I parked in the nearby mall parking lot and ran to my appointment. I was about a half hour early, but I just didn’t know what it would be like. I had never been to this kind of appointment, and I’ve never hung out right downtown first thing in the morning.
Thankfully, the door to the office I needed was the closest door to where I was. I checked in, and spoke to a receptionist who was very polite but super robotic. I spent the next twenty-ish minutes listening to her repeat the exact same things to more patients, down to the exact same emphasis on the exact same syllables. It was entertaining at least.
Patients were coming in and out super quickly, which made me feel relieved, like it would be quick, but also a little bit nervous I would be rushed or that the doctor would be super brief.
Lucky for me, it went so smoothly. I waited in an exam room for about ten minutes before my doctor came in and introduced herself. She read my referral and we discussed why I was there. The mole under my nose has become a pretty solid nuisance. If its dry with winter, and I blow my nose, it bleeds. A LOT. It hurts. And with all the bleeding, there’s scar tissue, so its growing. I don’t think its necessarily a risk of cancer or anything, but she agreed that it was very reasonable of me to want it gone. She surprised me by saying “We’ll book a removal in the next couple of weeks.”
I was outwardly surprised and said I had assumed I’d be waiting more like a year for this, and she laughed and said no, she was heading out on maternity leave soon and wanted to get it done herself. Boom! Done!
We booked it for the first week of February. Not so far away at all! Long enough that I can mentally prepare but not so far ahead that its going to sneak up on me and make me panic. Its early enough in the day, too, that I won’t have time to worry myself sick over it. Just wake up and go!
If you don’t want gory details, now’s the time to skip ahead!!
*****
She told me that she didn’t think it looked like a risky mole, and given the area, she said it would be better cosmetically to kind of “shave” it off rather than dig in and cut it out. She said she can see it has lots of vessels, hence why it bleeds so much, so she said she’ll take it off and cauterize the area. I’ll have a red sore spot there for a week or two, she said, but no stitches and no obvious pinching/deformation of my face. She did say there’s a slightly higher risk it could grow back this way, but thats not a scary thing. If it comes back and does the exact same thing over time, we can try it a different way, but she and I agreed that this made the most sense for now. I’m really happy with this decision! Of course, I’m confident she’ll send it away and if it comes back as anything concerning, I’m sure we’ll go back and remove it from deeper in. But I’m not going there in my head.
*****
I’m nervous, but I’m not. I’m so ready to get rid of this thing and not have to worry about scratching it or drying it out, or even something simple yet annoying like having a zit grow all up against it. Its going to feel so much better. Very very soon!!
This week is already filling up like crazy, and I’m both excited and nervous for this to all go down in a few days! Wish me luck!