Sigh. Me and Dermatologists

 Growing up in Southern California with blond hair and light skin, I did what the vast majority of the other kids did - hung out at the beach with no thought of anything but getting a nice tan. And, when I lived on a ranch, I spent hours doing chores or mowing hay or moving irrigation pipes with no shirt and no hat.

Now, I'm paying for it.

I've been most fortunate to have a series of skin doctors who knew what they were doing and found and removed the nasty cancer cells before they grew wild. [I was going to show a picture of one but they are all too icky to force upon all of you.]

So, this morning I found myself once again in a doctor's chair. The most painful part of the entire procedure is when the nurse jabs the skin on my forehead to inject the painkiller. For some reason, needles in the face hurt more than anywhere else on the body. When it came to the actual surgery, I felt nothing and the doctor - a new one as it was a special procedure called Mohs - was quick and efficient. But, because of the type and location, I spent an hour in the waiting room watching some stuff on TV that really teed me off while they sent it to a lab to see if he'd gotten it all.

He didn't. Back to the chair, more injections, another wait, one more surgery and another hour in that blasted, cold doctor's office to see if this time he'd got it all.

Ever wonder why doctor's offices and hospitals are so cold? It's to reduce the growth of germs and viruses.

Al last, I unsteadily walked out - the result of the anesthesia - with a big bandage on my forehead and an appoint for next week to go through it again.

I've lost count of the number I've had. But, I also constantly say my thanks to whoever it is watching over me that it's not yet the really serious stuff. How many suffered before we had the advances of today's medicine?

It also makes my Mexican wife relieved that her naturally darker skin protects her, her children and her fellow Hispanics from the same condition. Now to get a bit mystic here. Ever wonder just how little things like having darker skin in sub- and tropical regions protects one from strong sun while light skin derives from northern climes where the sun isn't as strong?

One little aside - I just learned that following my fellow bloggers using Google Reader DOESN'T increase the number of page views on those blogs!!!! It only counts if I actually click on and visit the blog. So, my apologies to all and, starting today, it's actually visiting your blogs.