Recently, Dr TL noticed that the brown mark on my face is getting darker. It used to be one, but recently spread into two. So, the shape is changing as well. I regarded it as ageing sign and tried not to pay attention to it. Since he has amazing skill about noticing abnormalities and illnesses, I took it serious.
While we were on the subject, I asked if the other moles I recently noticed were suspicious. I wasn’t concerned enough to ask him before, so I consider having the opportunity to talk about them was luck. They are black and showed on the areas that is covered all the time. He checked them and said he would cut them and send to pathology.
I never had skin biopsy, so I didn’t know what to expect. I had to make an appointment while the nurse is on duty, so that she can organise the procedure. This made me a little nervous because it means the appointment has to be much earlier than my comfortable hours and I didn’t get good feeling about the nurse. When I confirmed that Dr TL is the one who would cut my skin, I felt relief.
I did google to read about skin biopsy and skin cancer. I consider myself with low skin cancer risk, however I’m not free from the risk completely. I also remembered Clare’s story from “ 60 Minutes: Dying for a tan “, who was a solarium skin cancer victim and campaigner for regulation on solarium operation. She reminded me that having Asian skin doesn’t guarantee I don’t get skin cancer. I also remembered an current affair report that benign skin cancer can be also tragedy and leave patients disfigured. Some of the articles I googled suggested that weakened immune system increases the risk for the cancer as well.
I was not worried at this stage, but I would like to have them checked and know they are okay, just in case.
Appointment was made at 1:30 pm which is the latest I can get. My usual breakfast happens around 2 or 3 pm. Considering the payback and worsened flu from the research blood collection, I would say I managed well to show up on time. Well…, was 4 minutes late.
The nurse was in the reception counter with the receptionist. The usual receptionist told the nurse I was there for procedure. The nurse gave me a dirty look and disappeared without saying anything. This upset me. This is not the first time she did this to me, and the upset was growing bigger inside of me. I would think a little smile and hello wouldn’t hurt…
She stayed out of sight. After I was ushered to the procedure room by the receptionist, the nurse showed up finally. She asked why I was there. I started explaining, she took over and said strongly that the mark on my face is just the sign of ageing. I felt this was going to be tough afternoon… Before I could say anything, she got a phone call. I had to leave the room now because one of the patients was complaining chest pain and they needed to do ECG immediately.
I waited in the hall way, and they decided to do my skin biopsy in the other room. The nurse pushed a tray of procedure equipments to the other room and I sat on the exam table. She kept insisted that the mark on my face is just an ageing, and waited for me to say something.
I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t get what she was really telling me. Is she telling me to a) cancel the procedure, b) that I’m paranoid for nothing, or c) that I’m silly to believe my doctor’s advice?
At the same time, I was getting concerned about Registered Nurse’s (Nurse with university degree) attitude in general. I’ve noticed that they disagree with my doctor’s advice despite they don’t know Dr TL or me. It happened at the hospital Transit Centre and it is happening right at this moment. I wondered if they are taught or trained at university to disagree with doctors’ advice. As a patient, I found it is rather disturbing. Aren’t they supposed to cooperate with doctors as a team, instead of showing obvious competition against them?
The nurse was still waiting for me to say something. Before I could say anything, there was an emergency patient rushed into procedure room, and she left.
She had moved my belongings away from the exam table for me. Then, she took my sunglasses for me and put them on my jacket. I guessed sunglasses shouldn’t be worn while Dr TL is cutting my face. Room light was too bright for me and I covered my eyes with my hands.
I sensed people moving back and forth the hall way and it was giving me the sensory stimuli overload. It was good that I was already laid down, so it didn’t steal my very limited energy. I heard Dr TL’s calm and firm voice asking questions to the patient. His calmness soothed my nerves.
Dr TL came in and greeted me with Konnichiwa. All I could feel was that it is very different appointment. Room light felt even brighter and he gave me a large pat to cover my eyes from the bright light. A little consideration like this makes him very special. For the whole procedure, I covered my eyes with the pat, so I couldn’t see anything. My brain wasn’t really responding at this point and I didn’t know what I’m supposed to do. I just lie there and let him do what he needs to do. Local anaesthetic injection hurt a little bit, but the rest went nice and quickly.
He took two samples, one from face and the other from arm. He explained that he wouldn’t take more than two at one session in order to avoid lab mix up.
He asked the receptionist to find the nurse and ask her to dress the wounds for me, and left. After a while, nurse came back. Without warning, she suddenly removed the pat from my face. The bright light hurt my eyes. She probably thought I covered my face because I was scared of the procedure and she thought it was funny…
She cleaned the blood and dressed the wounds, and gave me a form to sign. She made a comment about Dr TL’s procedure, but nothing changes my knowledge how great doctor he is. She looked at the skin samples and kept going on they were nothing but just ageing. I asked her to let me see them. There were tiny bits of thing floating in the liquid. I cannot tell anything, of course. She was still trying to convince me. So, I just told her that I always follow my doctor’s advice. I didn’t know what else to say. She gave me the look, but didn’t persist anything anymore. If I had decided not to have the skin biopsy and it happened to be the skin cancer, would she take responsibility? I don’t think so.
Suddenly, she became extremely nice and friendly. I don’t know why… Her dramatically changed attitude confused me a lot. If you ask me now, I still say I cannot trust her…
I think Dr TL heard the nurse insisting it is just ageing. He tried to make me feel better by explaining what “opinion” is. I asked him how to look after the wounds, and there was not much I need to be careful. When I removed bandages the next day, they were just tiny black dry blood clots. It’s very different from what I imagined. Now I know what happens with skin biopsy, I would be a little more confident when I go under another skin biopsy. I would decide on the third mole after I received the result of the first two.
Recently, Dr TL noticed that the brown mark on my face is getting darker. It used to be one, but recently spread into two. So, the shape is changing as well. I regarded it as ageing sign and tried not to pay attention to it. Since he has amazing skill about noticing abnormalities and illnesses, I took it serious.
While we were on the subject, I asked if the other moles I recently noticed were suspicious. I wasn’t concerned enough to ask him before, so I consider having the opportunity to talk about them was luck. They are black and showed on the areas that is covered all the time. He checked them and said he would cut them and send to pathology.
I never had skin biopsy, so I didn’t know what to expect. I had to make an appointment while the nurse is on duty, so that she can organise the procedure. This made me a little nervous because it means the appointment has to be much earlier than my comfortable hours and I didn’t get good feeling about the nurse. When I confirmed that Dr TL is the one who would cut my skin, I felt relief.
I did google to read about skin biopsy and skin cancer. I consider myself with low skin cancer risk, however I’m not free from the risk completely. I also remembered Clare’s story from “ 60 Minutes: Dying for a tan “, who was a solarium skin cancer victim and campaigner for regulation on solarium operation. She reminded me that having Asian skin doesn’t guarantee I don’t get skin cancer. I also remembered an current affair report that benign skin cancer can be also tragedy and leave patients disfigured. Some of the articles I googled suggested that weakened immune system increases the risk for the cancer as well.
I was not worried at this stage, but I would like to have them checked and know they are okay, just in case.
Appointment was made at 1:30 pm which is the latest I can get. My usual breakfast happens around 2 or 3 pm. Considering the payback and worsened flu from the research blood collection, I would say I managed well to show up on time. Well…, was 4 minutes late.
The nurse was in the reception counter with the receptionist. The usual receptionist told the nurse I was there for procedure. The nurse gave me a dirty look and disappeared without saying anything. This upset me. This is not the first time she did this to me, and the upset was growing bigger inside of me. I would think a little smile and hello wouldn’t hurt…
She stayed out of sight. After I was ushered to the procedure room by the receptionist, the nurse showed up finally. She asked why I was there. I started explaining, she took over and said strongly that the mark on my face is just the sign of ageing. I felt this was going to be tough afternoon… Before I could say anything, she got a phone call. I had to leave the room now because one of the patients was complaining chest pain and they needed to do ECG immediately.
I waited in the hall way, and they decided to do my skin biopsy in the other room. The nurse pushed a tray of procedure equipments to the other room and I sat on the exam table. She kept insisted that the mark on my face is just an ageing, and waited for me to say something.
I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t get what she was really telling me. Is she telling me to a) cancel the procedure, b) that I’m paranoid for nothing, or c) that I’m silly to believe my doctor’s advice?
At the same time, I was getting concerned about Registered Nurse’s (Nurse with university degree) attitude in general. I’ve noticed that they disagree with my doctor’s advice despite they don’t know Dr TL or me. It happened at the hospital Transit Centre and it is happening right at this moment. I wondered if they are taught or trained at university to disagree with doctors’ advice. As a patient, I found it is rather disturbing. Aren’t they supposed to cooperate with doctors as a team, instead of showing obvious competition against them?
The nurse was still waiting for me to say something. Before I could say anything, there was an emergency patient rushed into procedure room, and she left.
She had moved my belongings away from the exam table for me. Then, she took my sunglasses for me and put them on my jacket. I guessed sunglasses shouldn’t be worn while Dr TL is cutting my face. Room light was too bright for me and I covered my eyes with my hands.
I sensed people moving back and forth the hall way and it was giving me the sensory stimuli overload. It was good that I was already laid down, so it didn’t steal my very limited energy. I heard Dr TL’s calm and firm voice asking questions to the patient. His calmness soothed my nerves.
Dr TL came in and greeted me with Konnichiwa. All I could feel was that it is very different appointment. Room light felt even brighter and he gave me a large pat to cover my eyes from the bright light. A little consideration like this makes him very special. For the whole procedure, I covered my eyes with the pat, so I couldn’t see anything. My brain wasn’t really responding at this point and I didn’t know what I’m supposed to do. I just lie there and let him do what he needs to do. Local anaesthetic injection hurt a little bit, but the rest went nice and quickly.
He took two samples, one from face and the other from arm. He explained that he wouldn’t take more than two at one session in order to avoid lab mix up.
He asked the receptionist to find the nurse and ask her to dress the wounds for me, and left. After a while, nurse came back. Without warning, she suddenly removed the pat from my face. The bright light hurt my eyes. She probably thought I covered my face because I was scared of the procedure and she thought it was funny…
She cleaned the blood and dressed the wounds, and gave me a form to sign. She made a comment about Dr TL’s procedure, but nothing changes my knowledge how great doctor he is. She looked at the skin samples and kept going on they were nothing but just ageing. I asked her to let me see them. There were tiny bits of thing floating in the liquid. I cannot tell anything, of course. She was still trying to convince me. So, I just told her that I always follow my doctor’s advice. I didn’t know what else to say. She gave me the look, but didn’t persist anything anymore. If I had decided not to have the skin biopsy and it happened to be the skin cancer, would she take responsibility? I don’t think so.
Suddenly, she became extremely nice and friendly. I don’t know why… Her dramatically changed attitude confused me a lot. If you ask me now, I still say I cannot trust her…
I think Dr TL heard the nurse insisting it is just ageing. He tried to make me feel better by explaining what “opinion” is. I asked him how to look after the wounds, and there was not much I need to be careful. When I removed bandages the next day, they were just tiny black dry blood clots. It’s very different from what I imagined. Now I know what happens with skin biopsy, I would be a little more confident when I go under another skin biopsy. I would decide on the third mole after I received the result of the first two.