Excavating! (Skip this if you don't like icky stuff...)

My doctor has been excavating recently... Ridding my body of two evil, precancerous moles - one under my arm and one next to my belly button. The one under my arm was cut off and cauterized, which sounded a lot like a soldering iron and smelled worse. He apologized for the smell, saying, "That's what it smells like when you stay in a burning building for just a little too long..." I told him that I didn't really care for the smell of burnt flesh - especially my own! And then, the one on my belly needed to be cut out, which left me with 4 stitches.

Any chance they could issue ear plugs when they're going to start snipping away at your skin? Just a suggestion...

Aside from some irritation from the sutures and bandages, the one on my belly did just fine, and is now healing pretty well. Mostly, it itches, which is probably a good thing.

The burnt-off site under my arm, though, got infected. I even managed to elicit a startled "Augh!" (coupled with a step backward) from a couple of nurses before explaining that it was mostly antibiotic cream under the bandage, so I was appropriately proud of myself... After getting a prescription for a better antibiotic cream (Silvadene), it's doing a lot better. It's oozing less now, which is good. I'm even leaving it uncovered at night just like the nurse told me to, even though it hurts when anything touches it... like my arm or my blanket or the soap and water in the shower... They said to watch it through the weekend and then come back if it's not doing better. So long as it stops hurting soon, I'll be just fine.

And, just like a good blogger, I am including super close-up photographic evidence:

The one on my belly... my skin REALLY didn't like the sutures and all the Band-aids!

The icky one under my arm. See - more redness on the sides, from all the hateful bandages.

I have to change them 3 times a day, so the skin gets ripped off regularly.
PS - Bandage peels are the latest rage in spa treatments. Coming soon, to a spa near you!

Ok - I'm done whining about it now. Sorry about the gross, and kinda blurry, pictures.

On the positive side, Hannah comes home tomorrow!!! YAAAYYYYYY!!!!! :) :) :) :)