What's this?
My four year old daughter was staring quizzically at her right knee. I bent down and squinted to get a better look. Sticking out from her flesh was a small pearly growth. She had a wart.
My wife and I bought a role of duct tape and religiously placed a piece on her knee every night. It seemed to get smaller, but never went away completely. My daughter was indifferent. She neither complained or shied away from showing it. It was a part of her.
Eventually we decided that something had to be done. I contemplated making an appointment with a local dermatologist. But who wanted to spend a hundred dollars (deductible) on such a little thing?
In a strange turn of irony, I did that which I always criticized my patients for. I ignored it. I turned a blind eye to the festering imperfection that seemed to grow a little every day. If I just put it off. if I just ignored it, maybe it would go away.
Time passed. We continued with our busy lives in denial of this small but annoying problem. Until yesterday. Yesterday, my daughter tripped while running on the side walk. As I swooped down to pick her up, I noticed a small flesh wound on her knee. And there on the cement lay her wart. Decapitated.
The lonely parasite stared up at me smugly. It mocked me.
You doctors think your so important!
Who needs you anyway?
1 comment:
I think the operative concept here is "the little things", yes?
I know doctors are there to help, but I also know how very busy they are. I think many of us patients are often torn between "bothering" the doctor with something that might be trivial vs. making an appointment for something that really requires medical attention (not that the layperson is always very good at knowing the difference, but you get the drift).
I really needed the doctor to help get my blood pressure under control, and I needed a whole lot of doctors to treat the lymphoma I had several years ago. For a rash on my hand, not so much.
In my book, doctors are still pretty important to have around. :)
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