Marley & Me

So there it is. Herr Doctor removed the Steri-Strips yesterday and for the first time, I cried "Ouch!" Not once during the four radioactive injections in my face, the needles in my arms and hands, the 100 stitches or their removal but only when the good doctor pulled those little strips from my neck and face. Hey, it hurts when those little hairs are pulled out of your head!

Okay, it's kind of ugly but you can't see it head on and it's only been sixteen days since the surgery. I am told that the lumps and bumps are normal and I believe they should subside as everything heals. But I am jumping ahead! I had a female resident who came in and checked things out in general and talked to me about how I was doing. I decided not to mention the whole Ferengi thing as she didn't look like she liked the Sci-Fi. So, I told her fine and that I really wanted these damned strips off and to work out again. She promised Herr Doctor would take them off and that he'd probably give me the okay on the exercise. She then left and I sat bored out of my mind for about 10 minutes.

When Herr Doctor came in, he had the same resident plus another. The first thing out of his mouth was "Oh, what happened there?" I explained the body check and that Doctor Woodhouse (yes, I will always go to him even if he spells his name wrong) didn't like the one on the side of my nose. He said it was odd but not in a bad melanoma kind of way. He kind of just smiled and shook his head. When it rains it pours. I gave him the Godiva chocolate from my mother and said, Now you have to share"! He then starts pulling off this strips (insert ouches) and says, "You don't mind if I talk about you..." "Like I am not here" says I. "No, knock your socks off" I tells him. He then describes how the skin on my cheek used to be all the way over there as I think "and it feels like it wants to go back". He tells them that it was odd that I had this on my cheek so young and then refers to the man they had just seen who had one in the same spot (this would be the guy who had surgery two days before me) but he was twice my age. I then shout, "He was 100?" Herr Doctor says, "Wait, how old are you" and we all laugh. The man was like 92 so they gave me a few years. Ta.

He then gives me the drill. Lumps and bumps. I can buy expensive creams for the scar but he suggests using Vitamin E capsules (which I have just done) and tells me to always wear sunscreen there to protect from scarring. I can work out (I did forty five minutes on the treadmill this morning) and I don't have to come back for two months. He still wants to see me regularly even though I am in a very low risk group (in fact, it is 97 out of 100 people in my group will never have further issues).

So now it's Marley & Me. Had he had that toe checked out sooner, he'd still be smiling, smoking, and fathering children. Scars suck but it's a lot better than the alternative! Ride natty, ride!