My Experience

My wife suggested I go to the doctor to have my hand checked out for an ‘age spot’ that was getting bigger. The doctor examined the spot very carefully with a magnifying glass. He suggested that while it didn’t look irregular enough to be pre-cancerous, we shouldn’t take any chances and thus get it removed.

A nurse prepped my hand, then the doctor explained what he was going to do. The area was numbed and he cut out the spot with a scalpel. I’m not very squeamish, but decided not to look while he was doing it. He then put it in 2 or 3 stitches and bandaged it up. He provided some extra bandages and told me to keep it dry.

I felt fine after the procedure. Keeping it dry proved difficult as I left the next day to take seven 16-year-olds on a 4-day hike through the Scottish Highlands (not a dry place). Nonetheless, the stitches survived and I found out a few weeks later that the spot had been benign.

I now have a faint scar on my hand that I point out to young people when I’m telling them to put on sunscreen.