Spot, Gone!

This is a quick post, following outpatient surgery this morning using local anesthesia to remove the pesky spot referred to in several earlier posts. It's gone, off to the pathology lab for close examination.

Patty and I made a slow, very slow, long drive up to Beth Israel Deaconnes Hospital in Boston, for the procedure. The weather folks had predicted a messy commute, and they were right, with rain followed by heavy wet snow, and everyone seeming to have left early to beat the traffic! Still, we made it.

The procedure was simple, but totally weird. I could see the smoke rising off the cauterizing utensil they were using as they removed the spot . . . a smoking abdomen! Bizarre. Dr. M said that the "spot" was about 1 cm, and round like a marble. When he examined it before the surgery, he recognized that it felt different than it had in October when I went to see him about it. After removing it, he labeled it "suspicious," but we'll have to wait to see what pathology has to say about it. In any event, I'm glad it's out!

Since my last postings mentioning the spot, and Julie's "Out, out damn spot!" comment, we've all been quoting Lady Macbeth frequently. And now it's out, and I feel immensely relieved. Thank you to all of you who wrote here or by email, or expressed concern in person about my little procedure to remove that pesky spot. I very much appreciate all of the loving concern flowing to me and my family. And now I can focus on baking my Christmas cookies (an annual tradition for me) after teaching my last classes of the semester this week.