Psychology of visits to the doctor

My wife noticed some time ago that there was an array of odd-looking marks on my back, so I made an appointment for the dermatologist. Yesterday I had my appointment; I told her immediately about my back so she examined this first. No actinic keratoses so no liquid nitrogen on the back, but there is one red area that she considers to be a candidate for excision. She's marked this red area as can be seen in the photo on the left. She made no remark about the various brown patches above and to the left which ironically is why I made the appointment in the first place.

Of course, no one leaves the dermatologist without some liquid nitrogen; some went on my forehead and some on my neck, at the same place where I had a BCC removed four years ago¹. 

But that's not really what I'm writing about, but rather about the positive feeling with which I left the dermatologist. Somehow I'm pleased that there is a growth; I recall how bad I felt the first time (in or around 2006) when I was first diagnosed with a BCC (because the word 'cancer' filled me with dread). But now it's as if I'm vindicated that there is something wrong with me. 

If I am not mistaken, the surgeon who will remove this growth is the same doctor who diagnosed my first BCC. I used to see her for a few years then one day when I went to book an appointment, I was told that she had left the sick fund, so I went to another doctor with whom I spent a few years before reaching my 'new' dermatologist. It seems as if my first doctor has used the intervening years to train as a surgeon (or maybe she always was but there wasn't a position for her then).

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