January 22nd, 2009 - Thursday:  My doctor was originally from southern India and was great - and very friendly - and very handsome - and of course - has a job.  First he checked my arm and the sutures and noted how the surgery had healed.  The doctor said that I must not smoke as I had healed so fast and so cleanly.  He said most smokers do not heal very easily so that made me happy!  He said good news as the edges of the surgery showed no basil cells so the surgery was successful!

I told him I had two small hard bumps on my upper left chest that I wanted frozen.  They are just little nubs but he said as long as I was there, he would just as soon cut them out and send them out for a biopsy, just in case.  I wasn't happy but better safe than sorry.  So he gave me a few pain killer shots, he was an expert and said I must have a low threshold for pain.  I said "Kind of!"  So he said he would be back in a few minutes and take out the two small spots.  In the mean time the assistant took out the stitches and said all I needed to do was put a cream like Vaseline on the scar to help it heal and mostly, hopefully disappear! 

So I was waiting for the doctor to take out the two small areas, I heard a man screaming down the hall!  Cursing and screaming like he was in horrible pain.  This went on for about five minutes and the I heard more screaming.  The assistant came back and said the doctor was with the patient and would be back as soon as the situation was taken care of.

Finally the doctor came back and said this was another case of PTS (Post Traumatic Stress) and was prevalent with Iraqi soldiers.  He said it is a very sad state of affairs and they had to call the police to take him away to calm down.  Well by that time the anesthesia had worn off so more shots and then he took the larger area out, about half an inch if that big.  Then the second one, about a quarter of an inch and it hurt but I said tough luck.  The doctor laughed and said they would call me in two weeks with the results and would see me in three months just as a follow up.    He said I was lucky as the spots were basil cells and did not spread and when caught early, were easy to take care of.  So I was a happy camper after this visit.

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Published on: 2009.01.22