Well, I’m back from the first dermatologist appointment I’ve had since I had acne so badly that it was difficult to find my face. You know you’ve got it bad when they give you an ointment and then tell you not to go out in the sun.
Interestingly enough, my skin is now nice enough that women I don’t know on the street stop me to mention it. Okay, so it’s only happened twice, both on the same day, both by women selling Mary Kay products, but hey! A girl’s got to appreciate what she can get, especially when she spent several years looking like I did.
Anyway, this appointment was to talk with a dermatologist about a few questions I had about issues going on with my skin. One, she’s pretty sure is a bug bite that’s just persisted oddly; she gave me some ointment samples to put on it. The other, she’s pretty sure is a persistent, benign fungal infection; she gave me a prescription for an ointment for that. And the other was a mole that she sliced clean off my arm and she’s going to send in for tests.
Seriously, she sliced the whole thing off. It’s the weirdest thing.
I have a lot of moles. You could make a whole series of constellations out of the spots on my arms. I’ve had them for as long as I can remember, although now and then I do find ones that I don’t remember having before. Since I have so many and I’ve had them for so long, I know that I should watch out for certain things—the ABCD of moles. Asymmetry, Border, Color, and Diameter. If any of those things change, then I should have it checked out.
So this mole on the crease of my left elbow started to act strangely. Sometime in the last month or so, it started to change from the brown it had been to a pinkish tone. It got a little puffy and sensitive, and then it got a pink border around it. And all those things added up to me calling up a dermatologist and setting up an appointment. Yesterday, actually. I called and was told that I could either come right away the next morning or wait until the 18th of September. That’s right—either within 24 hours or wait a month and a day. Yeah! I’ll take tomorrow.
So I went in this morning and showed her the mole on my arm. She checked over the rest of the moles on my arms, legs and back. I showed her the blue mole on my butt. Apparently that’s just what they’re called: Blue moles. I’m pretty sure the nurse had never seen one. Hadn’t really planned on dropping my pants and showing off my bottom today, but there ya go.
I showed her the other problems I’m having, and then the nurse suck a tiny needle in my arm, numbed up a spot on my arm about the size of a quarter, and the doctor took a straight razor and shaved off the top of my mole. I don’t really know what I was expecting when they said they were going to take a biopsy, but that wasn’t it. I’ve got a band aid on my elbow right now and it’s covering this raw, pink spot with a purple needle spot beside it. If my elbow could speak, it’d probably be saying something about being naked.
My biggest question is whether the mole is going to come back when the skin heals. I assume that yes, it will. Because I’m pretty sure it’s got something to do with more than just the top layer of skin and that the pinkness I’m looking at when I remove the bandage is the inside of the mole. Because it didn’t bleed like a cut would and it doesn’t look like any other scrape I’ve had, so it’s got to be something different about the skin and that is what will grow back.
It’s just so strange.
They’re going to call me back inside of two weeks or so with the results of the testing. I’m trying not to be too worried. It doesn’t seem like anything I should be too worried about. I was actually more worried about the spot that she says is a bug bite. So I’m just going to be calm and wait for the phone call. And put the ointments on those other spots and see if they go away. And once again be so very thankful that I’ve got medical insurance that covers all these sorts of things.
And that’s the most interesting part of my day so far. It’s enough excitement for one day.
Sounds like you’ve been busy with all sorts of things! I don’t think I could have watched them do the removal. I can’t even stand to watch them prick my finger!
Yeah, I watched the needle for the numbing, but I didn’t watch the actual cutting off part. Just the before and after. It was weird enough not being able to feel what was going on. I didn’t want to watch it, too.
My poor elbow. Feeling finally came back earlier this evening and it’s not happy about the whole thing.