$950 for cutting M for 10 seconds is good money if you can get it!

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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Dermatologist appointment this morning. I showed her a mole on my left forearm, that was a little raised & darker, she briefly glances at it, says it's fine, but, doesn't like the look of one farther up my arm (dark specks and blurry edges), so, out comes the razor blade and off it goes. $150 for the office visit and $800 for the biopsy excision...think of the mountains of Chinese bootleg LEGOs I could have gotten with that money! 😂 I won't know if it's cancer or not for 2 weeks, but, on the upside, since I've been cancer free for about 2 years now, I only have to see her once a year now, instead of every 6 months.

And, yes, she's hot, but, she's married and had just given birth to a son at my previous appointment with her.
 

sylvie

NG.COM TEMPTRESS
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I hope everything turns out OK buddy. I get new moles / freckles now that I'm getting old. They scare me every time I see them but I think they're fine
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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I've already had melanoma once, on my right thigh, but, they got it early enough, before it spread, so, I was okay, after they cut it out twice (once to remove it, second time to make sure they got it all). That mole was very large, dark, and unusually shaped though. This one was much smaller and looked okay to me, but, I'm also not a dermatologist.
 

Late

Reichsf?rer-Finnland,
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And, yes, she's hot, but, she's married and had just given birth to a son at my previous appointment with her.
She gave birth to a son while treating you? Wow, serious dedication to her craft.
 

Lagduf

2>X
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Just given birth? That means she is ready for that M D :emb:
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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I remember when Mario kicked Wart's ass and then, years later, he just showed up in Link's Awakening, using his Japanese Mamu name, like nothing happened, and everybody forgot all about what he did in Subcon. We didn't forget, you warty fook!
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
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im terrified of all my moles....
What do they not check them at my annual?
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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@NeoSneth my PCP didn't even notice the big, weird mole, that turned out to be melanoma, at my annual physical 2 years ago until I pointed it out to him (and it was quite visible) and only then did he agree that it looked worrisome and do something about it. My "favorite" part was when he informed me that my biopsy had to be sent to Mayo, from our local lab, and that he "didn't know what to make of that". It means it's fooking cancer, Doc, even a dumbarse like M knows that!
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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That's the flat rate for an excision, if you're uninsured, but, the fee will probably be significantly less because I do have health insurance. I've had shave biopsies multiple times in the past, but, I can't recall what the amount I was actually billed for was (I'm just quoting what was on the general fee schedule I signed prior to being seen, not the bill, which I haven't seen or received yet). It's possible said biopsy doesn't qualify as a "proper'" excision, as only the upper skin layers are being excised?
 

Lagduf

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I’d love to see the justification for $800 for a procedure that took all of 30 seconds. Particularly given that you paid $150 for the visit already which would assumedly cover the doctors time.

They are literally making these prices up.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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Yes, I have health insurance, if I didn't, I'd be in horrific debt. $950 for this sounds bad, but my chemotherapy treatments cost over 5 thousand dollars every 7 weeks, and I've got 3 MRIs this Friday which will have a hefty price tag too. My insurance constantly hemmorhages money over me, and, as I'm incurable, and will only get worse with time, that will escalate until I die.
 

NeoSneth

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slicing isn't $800. It's the lab costs to verify it's cancerous.
also they charge you crazy prices to jab you with basic local anesthetic.
 

Lagduf

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Still sounds like made up prices to gouge the insurer to me.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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The uninsured are the ones that get priced gouged. There was a woman, in one of my support groups, who gets the same infusions I do, she didn't have insurance for a month, and her bill was $16,000, for one treatment, compared to the 5 grand they charge my insurance (there's the cost of the expensive medicine itself, plus the hospital's charges for a nurse & pharmacist doing/overseeing your infusion, the equipment, etc.) Yeah, the prices are a bunch of bullshit.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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slicing isn't $800. It's the lab costs to verify it's cancerous.
also they charge you crazy prices to jab you with basic local anesthetic.
I imagine all of that is factored into the cost. The sheet just had $170 for new patient visits, $150 for established patients like myself, $800 for excisions, and $1,000 for MOHS surgery (that's a special kind of cancer excision process where they examine what they're removing, immediately, under a microscope to gauge when they've successfully removed all of the cancer. The benefit there is that it's more precise and they don't have to guess how much flesh to take.)
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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I probably do have enough LEGOs to build a human-sized vehicle. 😂 But, nah, I'd never build something like a Killdozer to hurt others. Having problems in your life is no excuse to take it out on other people. If I ever reached a point where I wanted to end myself, I wouldn't take anybody else down with me.
 

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
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Dermatologist's office called this morning, and, after being evaluated at a lab, the excised mole biopsy was found to be benign and harmless, so, there's another pointless scar for my collection. I think she just likes cutting me (and the cash). 😂
 
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