Skin check - check!

I had my first ever dermatologist appointment today, for a routine skin check. I've got a 1/4 latin blood in me (the other 3/4 are northern European, Holland and Germany to be specific) and my coloring seems to take after that quarter. I've got dark hair and dark eyes and naturally olive-ish skin that tans very easily. That being said, I am a child of the 70s, when our moms and dads let us fry on the beach and ride our bikes down steep hills without helmets. Most summers I was as brown as a nut by the middle of June and I wondered recently if I had done any permanent damage.

I scheduled this appt several months ago on the advice of my PCP. She didn't see anything that concerned her, but I do have a few moles on my back that she said would probably be good to take a look at, though she didn't think anything of them. So I went in this morning, my lone non-girlie medical appt amongst many in the next few months. I love the Longwood medical area in Boston -- it's like a little town of it's own, with several world-class hospitals and Harvard Medical school's campus and hundreds of busy healthcare worker bees buzzing around. There are 5 Starbucks in an 8-block radius! These doctors and nurses sure love their java!

Being someone who works from home (in the suburbs), I always get a kick out of coming into the city and being amongst the lively buzz. Last time I was here, a month ago, I saw a wild turkey standing on the street. So random! I so wished that I had a camera on me -- it was the weirdest thing! It was like he was waiting for the green light with me, right at the crosswalk. Except it also looked like he wanted to mug me -- those buggers are scary up close!

The nurse had told me to take my clothes off and put on the robe and I had been really torn about whether my panties should stay on or off. I know they usually stay on for anything non-OBGYN/RE related, but I'm so used to whipping them off, that's what I did at first. Plus, I know they like to check EVERYTHING during a skin check. But as I sat there waiting, I left kind of dumb with my butt hanging out of the back of the opening and I figured I could always take them off if she requested.

So I'm sitting there, doing my usual over-analzying and the doctor came in. She was just about the nicest lady ever. A lovely British accent and great bedside manner. But... she brought along a med student to observe. It was fine and she asked me over and over if it was OK that he was there, and it was. But all I could think was, THANK GOD I PUT MY PANTIES BACK ON! It turned out that I hadn't needed to remove them and Good Lord, I would have been embarassed having not only my doctor, but also a witness for my tush sticking out in the breeze when it didn't need to be. I don't know if any of you is a Nurse Jackie fan (new series with Edie Falco) but the med student was a dead ringer for Dr. Coop on the show, which gave me a chuckle. Especially when the doctor pulled down my panties in the back and checked BETWEEN MY BUTT CHEEKS! Yowza, who knew??

Good news, everything checked out fine. The scalp analysis was the best! It felt like a massage. She looked closely at those few moles on my back with a little tool and said they look fine. I'll go back annually for a couple of years so she can learn my body (hubba hubba) and if nothing changes, then every couple of years. The doctor burst my bubble a little bit by pointing out that a few marks that I had kindly self-termed "beauty marks" were, in fact, moles. Fie, so much for my many marks of beauty.