I've had a number of sebaceous cysts, mainly on my scalp, and one infected one in the middle of my back. Most were surgically removed, and one I even removed myself with my bare hands (a crude procedure with better than professional results). One day I went to the clinic to have several removed from my head by the great doctor we had at the time, Dr. Fritch in Everett, Washington.
A nurse sat beside him as he worked, handing him the syringes for local anesthetic and the scalpels and needles and all that gory stuff. I didn't envy her. And while the doctor was cutting in to remove the last cyst, the worst one, in the back of my head, I could tell it was big and he was digging in deep, and I asked him, "When I'm old and bald, will this make me look ugly?"
Dr. Fritch's laugh began deep in his belly and reverberated throughout his whole body until the scalpel began to shake inside my head, and I cringed, imagining what damage was being done in there. When his laughter allowed, he managed to say, "That's one I can't answer for you."
I haven't joked with a doctor during surgery since.
______
For the complete contents of the Butter Rum Cartoon, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment