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    Come on, leave me breathless

    I tell you–this month! Lots of planning and administrative-document-writing, which I realize is necessary but which tends to make me a little cranky. To top it off, my assistant’s been out sick since Monday. No, I’m not one of those managers who need to ask the receptionist to help him work the fax machine, but my workload went up measurably, of course, and a lot of it was stuff that I haven’t had to do for years. Not a slack minute.

    I did, however, have to shoehorn in time to go to my dermatologist so she could irradiate my chin again. I’d managed to become the proprietor of a rather large wart, probably because I shaved over it for a good week or two before realizing it wasn’t my usual acne. Irradiate is, I presume, the medical term for what she did; to a layman like me, it sounds as if she were going to kill off all the Montezuma’s revenge while leaving me fresh and juicy. In reality, she used some kind of pulsing-laser thing to burn away the virus. She tried to get it all three weeks ago, but, apparently, there’s a danger of scarring if you get too thorough, so she just zapped down as deep as she dared. I had to keep it bandaged and slick it down with an antibiotic ointment of singularly repellant texture.

    Unfortunately, they can’t always extirpate it with the first treatment, and sure enough–damn!–it started growing back in one tiny place, and several new little ones (I have a heavy beard and give myself little nicks a lot) had grown in. Thus I found myself being “irradiated” yet again today, only this time in little places dotted around my chin. Three more weeks of ointment.

    This normally wouldn’t bother me too much–I don’t like looking weird, but it’s not as if I were in the market, or anything, and if Atsushi’s not here, he doesn’t have to deal with it. It’s just that Japan’s big spring bank holiday starts tomorrow, and he’s coming home. He’s had kind of a stressing run at work lately, and we’re going to have an early birthday celebration because we can’t get together on the actual day. So I’d been hoping to be back to normal when he got here, but no such luck. Another three weeks of looking like a sci-fi movie monster. And it’s my chin, of course; there are only one or two places I can imagine that would interfere more with uninhibited amorousness. Guess I’m going to have to be really good with my hands.

    Uh, so, yeah. I don’t have any aspirations to being a one-stop source for news, but I normally do try not to offer up several consecutive days of scattiness. I’ve been kind of distracted, obviously; if it’s shown, I’m sorry. Oh, yeah! And I think we’re giving a dinner party, maybe? Have to check with Atsushi about that, given that I do the cooking.

    Anyway, the weather’s been gorgeous. Puts you in the mood for summer songs and hot-weather food. And Tokyo will be relatively empty for a few days, which is nice. For any Japan-based readers who are traveling for Golden Week, stay safe and have a great time. It’s probable that I’ll actually be back to more regular posting tomorrow-ish. Atsushi has a bunch of errands and will be spending some time with his parents while he’s here, and while we have plans to enjoy the outdoors, I think we’re both going to be tired enough to enjoy sitting at home and lazing plenty, too.

    3 Responses to “Come on, leave me breathless”

    1. Michael says:

      A few years ago, I had the same issue, except I had these tiny little warts all over my chin. The dermatologist froze mine off with liquid nitrogen, which felt like being pricked with needles.

      The downside was that I looked like I had a pussbag hanging from my chin for a week or two. The upside is, after three visits, that they have not come back.

      Take heart. At least your doctor probably hasn’t said “These are the same warts people get on their genitals.”

      It was bad enough having the warts at all…

    2. caltechgirl says:

      Dude, I feel for you. I used to have a monster wart on my finger that was totally resistant to the freezing with LN2, and the dermo had to use some kind of acid cream that got all crusty to get rid of it. Didn’t swell up or look terrible while healing though. Took 6 weeks, but it’s been 12 years and it’s still gone.

      I wish you luck, especially as you have to shave it.

      You know, snuggling is underrated…..

    3. Sean Kinsell says:

      Yeah, I guess I was kind of lucky because it wasn’t anywhere I have to press on or chafe a lot–a wart on the hand has to be really annoying. I think because of the shaving issue, my doctor recommended incinerating the thing rather than using liquid nitrogen. I guess the idea of freezing it is to attract the attention of the immune system so it starts recognizing the virus is something to attack, but until that happens, it can still be spread.

      And you’re right, Michael: my 70-ish Japanese woman dermatologist didn’t make any genital wart comparisons. She did, however, keep telling me to be careful when shaving, and I was like, honey, you can only be so careful when pulling a blade across your face. I tried going scruffy for a few days, but then the bandage wouldn’t stay on. Ultimately, I worked out this system where I had two different cartridges, and the one I used on my chin would get bleached after every shower. Lot of good it did me.

      Nobody asked, but the weather is fantastic again today. Atsushi and I went out for lunch after he got in, and the park was so green it made your eyes hurt.

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