more medicentre hijinks (2006-05-04 - 10:56 a.m.)

So I woke up today sneezing. Why is this, you ask? Because I spent two hours at the Medicentre yesterday, of course. I am convinced there is no better place to catch some dread disease. However, at least this time it was a pretty interesting crowd (I hit the downtown Medicentre instead of the Whyte Ave one). On one side of me was the large woman with the wispy hair held back with pink little-girl clips. She entertained the crowd with a dramatic, stage-whispered description of how she's a waitress who hasn't had a day off in seven months, but she has to work to support her daughter. She informed us that she doesn't think she has pneumonia, but her lungs are in bad shape (and she gave an series of coughs by way of demonstration). We were all starting to think, "Wow, that does suck, and her lungs sound terrible. Poor woman", until she excused herself - and went outside to have a smoke.

This started the crowd muttering, and we got into a good discussion about the effect of smoking on already-diseased lungs. The guy on the other side of me (hearty rig-worker demeanour) informed us, "I went cold turkey at the age of one day. Getting all that nicotine my mother smoked out of my system was such a pain that I never tried cigarettes myself." This got a general chuckle, but unfortunately at that point a woman with a horrible three-year-old came in and the next hour was not nearly as fun.

Anyway, I was at the Medicentre to get a suspicious mole looked at. I can get into a dermatologist, but not for a month - or I can get a sooner appointment with a referral from a Medicentre. However, Medicentre doctors are always completely dismissive of any symptoms you might have, and this one was no exception. I waited an hour and forty-five minutes for five seconds of, "Nope, looks normal to me."

"But it's changing colour and bleeding!"

"Well, it looks like a normal mole."

"So how do you tell if it's abnormal?"

"Well, the ABCs of melanoma!"

"Which are?"

"Uh... Asymmetry... unusual colour... uh... actually, if you just come in tomorrow I can remove it for you and get it tested."

Just for reference (and since the doc apparently couldn't remember), the ABCs of melanoma are Asymmetry, Border (irregular), Colour (multiple shades of black and brown) and Diameter (more than 6 mm). This has been the Public Service Announcement portion of annabeth.diaryland.com.

Anyway, minor skin mutations (or not, according to the doc) aside, I am starting to get veryveryvery excited about The Road Trip. To recap, my friend Kiwi Michael and his friend Amy are driving her car from Vancouver to Halifax. I am tagging along for a short portion of the trip - the bit from Calgary to points south. I wish I had more time available, because I'd love to see more of the continent - but it sounds like I will at least be able to make it to Yellowstone which is certainly good enough for me. Before that, however, Michael and Amy are stopping by Edmonton for a few days next weekend. I can barely wait. I haven't seen Michael in a good three years and Amy, who has recently been living in Korea and New Zealand, sounds very cool.

I have started riding my bike to work. Turns out it's easy! I never would have suspected. I think I still associate bikes with the drudgery of getting up at 6 am and dragging piles of newspaper all over town. I don't think of my bike like a beloved pet (as the bike geeks do) but I have to say it's a pretty useful tool. Now I'm good to go as long as it doesn't snow any more...

My most entertaining coworker just came back from a conference and brought us each a bottle of BC wine and chocolate. She's so awesome. Not bad for a Thursday morning.

backwards ~ onwards

Tell me about it...

(3 comments so far)

Missed anything?
moved! - 2008-05-12
Sunday = time to ramble on - 2008-05-11
apparently I'm doing monthly updates these days. Sorry. - 2008-05-04
watershed - 2008-04-06
end of trip - 2008-03-31

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