After a recent visit to the doctor’s surgery to check out a couple of moles, the helpful nurse mentioned that I also had two skin tags on the top back of my right leg, almost bottom area and that she would freeze them off. No biggie I thought, I recalled having some verrucas dealt with in this way as a child. I figured the area to be a little more sensitive than the soles of my feet, but no skin tags that I couldn’t particularly see anyway? Win!
Not win, not win, not win! The pain or ‘discomfort’ started almost immediately, it felt like a little pinch, I can cope with this, was my initial thought. After a week one little pinch had becoming two big fat pinches that bothered me at all times. So I went back. The nurse agreed that they both looked kind of angry. She sent for the doctor, so twenty minutes and a packet of jaffacakes later, the doctor looks the angriness. And what is her opinion? More liquid nitrogen. During the process, I was composed in my language but she did offer the addendum that I could swear if I wanted. Where my brain was going was a place slightly beyond swear and had entered the realm of the unintelligible. She then told me that frozen peas would help, alongside salt water baths and some strong antiseptic cream that she gave me.
I left the doctors surgery, doing my most accurate impression of John Wayne to date and got to the car. I felt filled with an equal mixture of mirth and agony, and the shininess in my eyes confirmed this. I then drove my car to the supermarket. Pain or no pain, people need to eat! Mid shop I pondered whether or not I had been the first person to rub Lidocaine on my arse in Sainsbury’s carpark. I hoped yes, but reasoned that this world is a strange one, so went with no. The Lidocaine got me round the supermarket and for the journey home, I am just incredibly grateful that there were no small children in the car in need of a more colourful vocabulary.
I am not quite sure what insights this offers, other than leave well enough alone of things that you can barely see, and don’t let anyone with liquid nitrogen near your bottom. But should this situation ever arise in your life, the salt water bath really helped! On a more serious note, this has reminded me how important it is to look after myself and I have immense gratitude to how amazing my body is!
Map Point. How can I look after myself better?
Shiny journey 