In some ways, at my age, I am shrinking. I used to be 5’5″ and now when I’m measured I’m like 5’3″. But believe me, I’m still a growing girl.

In recent years, I’ve noticed “things” growing on me. In addition to chin hairs (a tweezer is something I’d want on a desert island), I am growing little lumps and dry spots on various parts of my body. I even had the pleasure of finding a growing mole on my décolleté and a small cyst on my chest. Most of these growing things aren’t really visible to others, but I can feel them and see them every morning in the shower.

The dermatologist (my skin doctor) looks at the reasons for my visit and sighs and says yes, these three lumps and that mole, that cyst and those dry spots have to go. He uses liquid nitrogen and something called a q-tip that zaps the offending lumps and dry spots (for complete recovery two to four weeks later). The hurt is minimal. Wen he looks at my back, he says he sees “a few more” new lumps and proceeds to zap them as well. Do people look at their backs in the mirror? I don’t. Who knew the doctor was going to have such fun?

And there’s more.

I used to apply fade cream diligently to the brown spots on my hand, but the spots kept returning. On one recent visit the doc asked me if I would like him to remove the brown spots. I said I did. He zapped every one, and they eventually were gone. The massive hand wrinkles remain, however.

When I go to the dermatologist’s office, the other folks in the waiting room seem much younger with tight faces and necks. The office also also calls itself a spa and says it performs other “look younger” procedures. Some of those flat-faced girls must be patients for that.

I, on the other had, just go in for barnacle removal.

Sometimes the doctor (or his assistant) must give me a shot to freeze the area before actual removal He removed my blooming brown mole after freezing the area, and it’s now not even a whisper of its former self. Voila.

For the cyst, I had to make two appointments: one for the numbing and removal and one to remove the stitches. Two drives; no more cyst.

The funny thing is, after a visit to the skin doctor and the removal of the most visible (to me) imperfections, I find more! Every time, Four or five months go by and I’m driving across town again.

This getting older thing for fair-skinned folks is a headache, but thank God, so far, no skin cancer has been involved.

Oops, found another one.