Fun at the Dermatologists

I ran across this amusing story about one blogger's recent experience at the dermatologist's office to have a mole removed. I guess the moral of this story is make sure your dermatologist removes the correct mole... not something you'd think you'd have to check.

Posted by Adam on Inkspots Blog:

I went to the dermatologist two or three weeks ago to have some moles checked out to make sure I wasn't dying from melanoma at age 24. Everything checked out until I wanted her to look at a small mole on my shoulder (closer to my neck than my arm, so I couldn't see it by turning my head).

I said, "Can you take a look at this mole?" And gestured as such to the general area of said mole. Expecting her to see which one I was talking about (because I had not noticed any other ones in that general area) she said, "Well, that looks a little off to me so I'm going to be safe and remove it and have it biopsied." I said, "Sounds good to me, I'd rather know than not."

Right then and there, she shoots me up, cuts away and puts in five stitches (there were a lot because I told her I was going on a backpacking trip in a month or so and didn't want the strap to be riding on a healing cut).

I left and went home. When I got home, I look in the mirror to see the damage and notice that the mole I was talking about...ta da, is still there. Well, having the faith that I do in the practice of medicine, I figured (and still do) that she decided that mole was okay and saw something else that I hadn't.

Two or three days later, I'm looking at the incision and seeing some redness, feeling some warmth, and noticing a little bit of pus on my bandages when I take them off. Great, an infection! Sweet!

I call the doctor and get another appointment so she can take a look. When I get there, she decides that yes I have an infection and posits that I do because what she actually removed was an inflamed hair folicle that was infected. All right, missed the mole, got the infected pimple/ingrown hair/whatever, gave me five stitches to boot, and I got an infection. The best part, during this visit and my last (to get the stitches removed), both the doctor and the nurse practitioner imply my fault in the whole incident because I was "picking" at the folicle. Yeah, ya dummy, they itch, I scratch.

She should have said, "I'm sorry, I mistook this red bump on your shoulder for cancer because you were scratching it." Damn, I'm sorry, I'll try not to get any more of them and if I do, I'll chew on painsticks to avoid scratching any of them.

Someone told me that it's malpractice, but I'm not so hard up for cash or such an idealist that I think medical professionals are perfect. I'm just upset I was one of the mistakes. Oh, well, glad it's not cancer.