Happy Halloween!

This is a day that I'm glad is over, although some aspects of it seem never ending. There were a few too many things, with unpredictable timing  for my comfort level. It began with a visit from the rat patrol who did their inspection, reset traps, pronounced all clear and went on their way. 

Our next stop was the optometrist's office in the back of the Sonoma Eyeworks where we both had eye exams. We've been going there for several years but I felt like I really established a nice rapport with the optometrist, a rather reserved fellow. When we were talking about knee replacements, he said that everyone he knew who had had knee replacements were told, Now you have a new knee...don't do anything...jump, kneel, etc. I said that hadn't been my experience, that I do everything (including having the dog run into it with his hard head), and he said, 'Oh, so the knee lasts forever while the rest of your body crumbles around it' "it's already happening, I said'

My main picture is of the gang at the front desk(s) who agreed to let me take their picture in their Halloween costumes. It's not as if everyone dresses up in costume here on Halloween,  but it always amuses me to see the guy behind a desk in a space suit or a person walking down the street dressed head to foot  (or crown to royal kicks) in magnificent regalia.

We had to pay extra but it was well worth it to have a picture of our retina taken because we didn't have to have our eyes dilated and grope our way through the rest of the day. 

We had time to drive home at a fairly leisurely rate and have lunch before I had to turn around and retrace my steps to the dermatology clinic for my consultation with the wunderkind MOHS specialist. I didn't really want to have any surgery, but I knew that it was unlikely. After going through all the options (at breakneck speed) we compromised with having one removed  excised in the traditional manner with stitches, only he doesn't do that so I see Dr. Dickey for that tomorrow.  He'll do MOHS on my leg, which he thinks he can stitch. First appointment he had for that is Dec. 30th! The other two we'll just wait and decide later because he knows he can't stitch them, but he can do special bandages that will help them heal faster...I asked him if, since because of my age  I needed to do anything,  he started telling me about removing cancerous lesions from 98 year olds. I think he misunderstood the fact that I just wondered if they grew fast enough to make them worth removing. I guess I knew that if you're talking to a dermatologist you're not going to be able to talk them out of removing cancerous lesions, and if you're seeing the MOHS specialist, you're not going to be able to talk him out of doing MOHS.

Definitely wine time now.