Nose News is Good News

Nose News is Good News

On Thursday morning,
I lay on the operating
table like a Thanksgiving
turkey awaiting carving.
“We’re only taking a millimeter
or so,” they said, holding
the pointer finger and thumb
oh so close together, about the
width of the letter o.
Nose numbed and ready, my eyes
were covered with green cloths.
“Close your eyes,” they said.
The doctor carved a nice round
circle that must have looked
like a flattened Spaghettio
around the space carved out
in a previous excavation.
I’m guessing he slowly
walked in a circle
as he carved away
the offending tissue.
Thirty minutes later
a nurse came in and said
they need to take away two more
“slivers” was the word she used.
So a bit more Lodocain
and a few minutes later
under those green cloths,
two more slivers were taken.
The lab people did their thing
and I was declared “cancer free.”
Basal cell cancer is curable in the
sense that they cut it out
and dispose of it. It’s too
bad all cancers are not like that.
After a few more minutes,
the reconstruction crew came in,
did another slice or two,
rearranged some nose
skin like furniture in a
living room, every so often
zapping a “bleeder” with an
electric thing of some kind,
and sewed what was left over
together again with thirty
or so stitches.
I have the mark of Zorro
on my nose for the
time being, from the corner
of my left eye to
the bridge of my nose,
then southward to the tip
and about as far to
the right as the top
is to the left.
Those thirty stitches
will come out in a few days,
and I’m told there will
be minimal scarring,
but I’ll remember the feeling
lying on that table
come Thanksgiving eyeing
the turkey awaiting the knife.