In his latest blood blog post Peter writes:

Early in the pandemic times, I noticed a small growth on my temple that, given the general sense of entropy in the air, was cause for concern. I made an appointment at my family doctor last week, and while he was pretty sure it was nothing to worry about, he offered to refer me to a dermatologist, cautioning that it might take some time to get an appointment, as we have only one dermatologist serving the entire Island. As it turned out, it took less than a week: my appointment was for this morning

Thankfully as it turns out it wasn’t a cause for concern, he was “simply a victim of age”. Which from my talks with my 87yr old uncle seems to be a common prognosis for those of us over 40 whenever you see a doctor. I think I’ve heard you aren’t 25 anymore at least 3x this year.

Far be it for me to say something nice about the PEI medical system, but sometimes the delay in seeing a professional can have a positive effect. I had a mole near my temple for seemingly forever, but a number of years ago it felt ‘alive’ and seemed to be getting larger (I did write about this but for the life of me I can’t find the post). Taiwan being the cancer Petri dish that it is, I thought the worst and scheduled an appointment with one of the best hospitals to seek this kind of treatment in Taiwan. Upon arrival the doctor looked at it and said that the mole was likely benign, but let’s ‘operate’, slice it off and send the biopsy off for tests. Ok, I said. And then I asked, when? She said, I’ll send you next door and we will do it immediately. Umm, could I have 5 minutes to chill and then make a decision?

Luckily it did indeed turn out to be nothing, but the speed from which we went from me thinking I had cancer, to being told it was likely benign, to getting my mole frozen and sliced off was disorienting. Sometimes we need time to process.