The Fun And The Not So Fun

It feels like in the past few weeks there has been a lot of activities on my calendar. Yesterday and today were no different. Some of the activities were fun. Others, not so much. 

Wednesday 

I was scrolling through Facebook after lunch and saw a post on the cat shelter's "Volunteers and Foster Parents" group that said there was a spot available for that night's Cats and Mats Yoga. Usually the event is a fundraiser, but they were offering it to volunteers as a "thank you for helping the kitties".

I was the first one to respond, and soon received a message that the spot was mine. This was the second time I have done yoga with the cats, and this session was very similar to the first. All of the furniture had been pushed against the walls to make room for the yogis (and felines). The instructor took her place in the front of the room. Some of the 15 cats in the shelter made themselves comfortable on mats:

And some were content to survey the event from above:

The instructor said we could follow her cues or play with the cats. I did a little bit of both. The hour went quickly. When I got home Pimento the Foster Cat was very interested in smelling my hands for unique scents.

Thursday 

A week ago I went to the dermatologist for a skin checkup. The doctor did a great job of checking every portion of my skin. Each year I end up with a couple of precancerous lesions that get zapped with liquid nitrogen, but this year she identified a suspicious-looking spot and took a biopsy. The result came back that I had a Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma (a common type of skin cancer, which is typically slow-growing and rarely spreads to other parts of the body). I made an appointment for this afternoon to have it removed.

From walking into the reception area until walking out the appointment took a half hour. In the examination room the physician's assistant numbed the area. The physician scraped away the lesion, cauterized the area to stop the bleeding, and then for extra insurance hit it with a blast of liquid nitrogen. The assistant put ointment and a bandage on the area, told me to take care of it for two weeks, and walked me to the payment desk. 

When the numbing wore off I had some mild pain. Nothing that I can't handle, but it would be nice if it wouldn't stay around long. 

Five years ago today: The Unknown SMSer