Life goes on

It’s always somewhat weird doing a recap of the weekend when you’re halfway through the week, but that seems to be a bit of a peteism.

It was a long weekend in New Zealand, thanks to the birth of a queen. Not Queen Liz, but actually Queen Victoria, apparently.

Megan and I were graced with my twelve year old little brother for the weekend. So, much to her dismay, Megan had to put up with two little boys for the weekend. He brought his PS2 and some PC games and was well amused. The weekend consisted of Fifa 2005, NBA Live 2003, Age of Empires 3, Monopoly, Risk (despite winning, I never want to play again) et al.

Also over the weekend I made an interesting decision. I’ve had a mole on my back for a while, this is basically how the conversation goes:

Megan: “Pete, I think you should get that looked at.”
Pete: “Mmmm.”

Two months later:

Megan: “Pete, I think you should get that looked at.”
Pete: “Mmmm.”

Two months later:

Megan: “Pete, I think you should get that looked at.”
Pete: “Mmmm.

Two months later:

Megan: “Pete, I think you should get that looked at.”
Pete: “Mmmm.”

Anyway, you get the idea.

This weekend I took a look at it and decided that it might be time to get it looked at. I went to the doctors yesterday morning after dropping Megan at work and tried to point it out to the doctor.

Pete: “It’s somewhere on my back.” (trying to point to where I thought it was)
Doctor: “Oh yeah, that one that’s coming out this week.”

So sure enough, the doctor made an appointment to have it out this morning. The surgery wasn’t spectacular, I think there were three local anaesthetic injections, which were pretty painful, but other than that, the most painful part was the cost. NZ$400. That just goes on hurting.

The doctor tried to convince me that he was giving me mates rates because he had gone to med school with my brother, and because I didn’t have medical insurance. I wasn’t exactly overcome with gratitude.

So yeah, they send the mole away now to see whether it’s cancerous. I have an appointment with the doctor in a week to check the wound and hear my prognosis.

From my understanding of things, Melanoma (the bad skin cancer) is pretty rare, so I’m staying optimistic. However for a guy that before this hadn’t seen a doctor in more than ten years, it’s all quite thought provoking.