Doctor of Plastics

So I had a strange experience today. I was referred by my doctor to a plastic surgeon and went for my consultation this morning. My needs are not anything serious. I have a pair of moles on my back that while totally normal looking, are a bit large and every year my doctor freaks out at my physical and sends me to a dermatologist and every year the dermatologist tells me they're fine but to keep track of them because I do have a history of skin cancer in my family. So this year I decided enough was enough and time to just get rid of them so that I don't have to waste my time shlepping all over the city to go see insensitive dermatologists who make me cry (another story, another time....) and so off to the plastic surgeon I went.

My plastic surgeon herself was very nice and conveniently located at the hospital 10 minutes from my apartment. The weird part was the other people in the waiting room. There were three different surgeons in the office and at least one of them was a pediatric specialist. While I was waiting, I sat with the funniest little family who came in with their 2 year old daughter and maybe 6 year old son. The boy had a scar on the top of his head and one on the side of his face but to tell you the truth, despite the fact that they were quite visible, I didn't notice them for at least 10 minutes because he was so engaging and vibrant. And the little girl just played coy with me while she ran around the waiting area with plastic rings she got from the office toy box. As I was leaving, a teenage boy and his mom were also coming in.

Along with me and the kids however, were two women, maybe in their 50's or sixties. One of them was obviously quite face-lifted and nose-jobbed but the other, nothing out of the ordinary. When I had my turn with the doctor, she had to take a phone call and left the room for a moment. This gave me a chance to check out the breast implants on her desk (I've never actually held one before - very weird and gross and some of them had little bits floating around in them like super-fine pieces of tissue. Ick). It wasn't until I was leaving that I saw a flyer for a conference on breast surgery that totally focused on reconstructive surgery that I realized that along with cosmetic breast implants, many women use them post-breast cancer. Then I felt bad because the face-lifted lady was probably not there for cosmetic reasons but reconstructive reasons.

Anyway, sort of strange experience because I had a lot of fun playing with the little kids and the doctor was very nice and the procedure won't cost too much (not OHIP covered of course) but it was weird because none of us had really happy reasons to be there. Plus, it's just weird to refer to the field as "plastics." Gross.