I felt weird writing about my dermatologist appointment earlier this week. I don’t want to gross anyone out! But I had some nice support from a good handful of you guys, and I do want to record it! So, here’s your warning! Mole removal details below! Click out now if you don’t want to hear about it! No love lost on my part!
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My appointment was today at 8:30am. If you’re from around here at all, you know its BRUTALLY cold out today. -41C, feels like -50C with wind. SO. COLD. My mom had graciously offered to drive me to my appointment, for me to have some support and company, and to leave the van with Brady so he could take the kids to school. Who knew how necessary that would be?? She showed up, true to her word, at 7:45am. I ran out to meet her and we shivered together for a few seconds before driving to the city.
My previous consultation had been at 10:10, and the streets were FULL! But this early, around 8:10 in the morning, it was dead quiet. We parked on the street, directly beside the building. Paid parking wasn’t even in effect until 9:00! Mom and I ran into the building and tried the door to the office. Locked. They weren’t even open yet! We sat on a little bench in the lobby for ten minutes before I tried the door again, and sure enough, it was open!
I checked in, and we chatted a bit with the receptionist about the cold. Mom said she would wait for me to go in, and then after a while, she figured she’d go wait in the car so it would be warmed up. (Yes, it is that cold.) I was called back within a couple of minutes. I was settled in the procedure room for less time than it took to take a selfie, so this “before” picture will have to do.
Yes, its filtered and fussed with. Its my blog insta pic. Don’t judge. The mole itself shows. Part of it is brown, and the part of it that is the color of my skin is the part thats grown with scar tissue from breaking open time and time again.
The doctor came in and reminded me of what we were doing, and I signed a consent form. We had a very brief chat about the weather, and then she invited me to come sit up in the big chair.
So here’s the thing. I knew the whole thing was going to be quick and simple and suuuper standard. But I was nervous! My mole was in kind of a tricky area on my face, and she had noted that it had a lot of vessels so it had the potential to bleed a lot. Hence the plan to cauterize it. I think my biggest worry was actually that it would get super bloody and I’d feel it run past the freezing and across my face, down my neck, or something like that. I wasn’t scared there would be a problem, but I was nervous for something super gross to happen. I don’t know. But I had worked myself up a bit. I was reassuring myself that there would likely be a second person, an assistant of some kind, helping catch the mess, hold my nose wherever it needed to be held, etc. But there wasn’t, and that made me more nervous. Was I going to bleed out from a hole in my face??
The first part was the worst. That freezing needle in such a tender area just sucked. But she was apologetic and calm, and in an obvious method of distraction, started asking me about my kids. She herself is pregnant with her second, and asked about how many I had, number of boys and girls, etc. Seconds after the needle was out, she wiped it off again and said “Alright…”
“Oh wow, just getting right to it, huh?” I asked.
“Ha! Ya, the freezing kicks in pretty quick!” she said, and off she went.
Sooooo there was some gentle sawing (anyone barfing yet?) and she simply blotted it with a folded piece of gauze a couple of times. I didn’t feel any pain!
The cauterizing was pretty gross, I won’t lie. She warned me that it would wreak, and she was right. Burning flesh directly under your nose. Its obvious it would smell. One little burn blast either got away from her or got right on the edge of where my freezing stopped, and I jumped!! She apologized profusely, and I apologized right back for moving so much. We had a little laugh about our Canadianness and excessive apologizing before I settled back down and she zapped the spot a few more times. And it was done!
She warned me that it might look like she put a cigarette out on me 😆 She’s not wrong. Up close, it looks pretty black and crunchy. But from a bit of a distance, it doesn’t look all that different!
I used to have a little brown spot there, and now I have a little black spot. And soon, the little black spot will fall off and the spot will heal and it’ll just be skin! I’m SO happy to have it over and done with!
I left the procedure room, and my mom hadn’t even had a chance to go back out to the car! I was in there for maybe ten minutes.
This was all about four hours ago now. All the freezing is gone, and I feel maybe a teeny bit of soreness. It was sore as the freezing wore off, but it feels better now. We’ll see how it progresses but I don’t anticipate a problem.
I’m SO relieved! Such a simple fix for something that’s bothered me for a nice long while.