WGAF Journal Entry: Bloody hell...in the Morning!

I woke up this morning with actor Mickey Rourke on my mind.

Why?

As I blearily looked in the bathroom mirror...I saw a reflection of Rourke's character in the "Wrestler" staring back at me.

There was my mug...with a bloody pulp of a nose...and a BIG gaping hole at the tip...surrounded by a monstrous scab!

WTF?

Oh, yeah, never mind.

My "new" face was just the result of sun damage removal by my friendly 68-year-old dermatologist.

Thirty-six hours earlier...I had six growths...one of them pre-cancerous...frozen with nitrogen...from my face and body.

A pre-cancerous AK was on my nose, a growth on each temple, a mole-like thing on my lower right cheek, a small growth on my thigh and on the small of my back.

No big deal, right? Years of sun damage had finally come back to haunt me. http://www.skincancer.org/actinic-keratosis-and-other-precancers.html

Playing hardball, softball, lounging on Mexican and Brasilian beaches and seven years of driving a sporty little Karmann-Ghia convertible...with the top permanently down... were now exacting their tolls.

I asked my doc about additional treatment for the wounds. Creams, bandages, etc?

Of course, I was especially worried about the appearance of my nose.

He said it wouldn't look too bad...more like I had a big pimple. No worries.

The first day, he was right...not too bad. It didn't scare me. The frozen spot looked like a big bump.

But by day two, wow, the fraking thing...even disgusted me!

It was a slightly smaller version of the Grand Canyon...only done in crusty blood.
The scab was weeping and oozing a clear liquid.

As a former TV reporter, fears of future plastic surgery swirled in and around my brain.

I really needed a bandage to hide the wound on my nose...but one small enough that so I could go among humans again...without being stared at.

Oh, by the way, good luck finding those.

BandAid offers all sorts...but not many inconspicuous, tiny, flesh-colored ones.

Instead, I ended up using a skin-toned patch....made for foot blisters and corns!

I'm wearing one now...and will be for quite awhile.

The doctor said to check back with him...in four to six weeks...to see if the freezing successfully removed the precancerous growths.

Until then, I will look like Rourke in "The Wrestler," just emerged from a bad beatdown match.