Chinese medicine

I've had a strange growth on my shin for the last few months and finally decided I should have it checked out at Kaiser.  I don't want to go off to Mexico with that worry on my mind.   I called my "primary physician" and got an appointment for the following day, Thursday.  He is a delightful chap, Dr. Ho.  Young, smart, very personable.  Yes, he thought I should have it seen by one of his colleagues, Dr. Su.  It is famously difficult to be seen at the dermatology clinic but, mirabile dictu, he got me in on Friday morning.   Dr. Su agreed that this growth looks suspicious and should be biopsied immediately.  Twenty minutes later I emerged with two big bandages on my left leg, a little bag of bandages and a prescription for some sort of mega-watt antibacterial salve.   What's under the bandage are two small wounds, one about the size of a dime, the other the size of a 1-centavo piece.  I should get the biopsy report in two weeks while I'm swanning around Florence.  If the results are bad I'll have some further nipping when I get back.  If not, I'm done.  I'm hoping for the latter result, of course.  I have a total of six different docs I see at Kaiser; three are Chinese, three are women.  I get great care from all of them. 

Meanwhile, I'm finishing up on my packing chores, gathering all the necessary plugs and chargers and converters so I will be thoroughly connected to the world at large.  I've hoisted my suitcase around the house to be sure it's not too heavy to shove up into overhead bins.  Of course there's always the possibility I can gate-check it and avoid the strain.  My personal Delta representative (aka daughter Caitlin) will give me a final update toward the end of the week in case I have to alter my plan to fly Sacramento-Seattle-Paris and instead take some other route.  She herself has just returned from a Switzerland-Paris trip, business class all the way and I am hoping to do as well.

Like my fellow blogger over at No More Commas Period I have been very moved during the visit of Pope Francis to this pretty secular country.  His spirit of benevolence, kindness and peace is sorely needed these days.   My father was an Episcopalian priest in Coronado so that's the religious culture I grew up in.  But I always found the local Catholic church, Sacred Heart, to be a place of quiet and mystery; all those statues of dead "saints", you know?  And Anglicans didn't depict the crucified Jesus hanging on the cross.  It fascinated me as a young child.  Completely different from my experience. 

I leave you with a new photo of our gal Daisy, here with her big sister.  She'll be two months old on Tuesday.