Slice, Snip, and Sizzle

I have a general problem/fear about getting old and my body not working. Today I realized I also have a fear about my body getting sliced, scissored, and/or cauterized. I went to the doc today to have a questionable mole cut off my back and a skin tag removed from my left armpit (if this is TMI already, you may want to stop reading now). I've never had to have things removed from my body since I was an infant, and I went into my appointment with some anxiety: my doc was really going to cut off part of my body, albeit very small pieces of skin. I was still nervous.

The only physical pain I actually experienced was the pain of getting an injection of local anesthetic. The mole removal on my back involved no pain after the shot, just a light tug as he was stitching up the spot. Same with the skin tag on my armpit, although the burning smell of the cauterizing tool closing off the small blood vessels from the skin tag was simply gross.

My doc also looked at my knee, and his diagnosis was that it probably is not a tear, just serious and lingering inflammation from overuse and chondromalacia. I have to wear my knee brace for another week and head off to physical therapy. He already knows I'm itching to get back on the bike, so I'm going to have to exercise my patience. This will be easier now that our A/C is working again (the crowd goes wild!!!!).

As I sit here, the local anesthesia is still working so I can't feel anything from the slices and snips. That will wear off in the next hour, so we'll see how that feels. Hopefully it's not too bad.