You may have noticed I refer to this post as a lesson, it’s not because I’m trying to teach you anything, rather it’s a reminder to myself, as a serial procrastinator, how often I fall back on the same stupid mistakes. And also, I have the feeling this is the first in a long series of lessons learned the hard way.

My motto has always been: why do today what I can put off till tomorrow, or preferably next year. It’s a stupid motto and I’ll tell you why: a year or two ago I noticed a cyst on my back, it looked like a pimple that wasn’t ready to show it’s true colors yet. (Oh, by the way, this is in no way a tragic, have a tumor post, so no worries, it really is just a post about how stupid I am sometimes.) The cyst took up residence on my back and since it was pea-sized and hardly noticeable I promptly started ignoring it. The husband, as those who’ve followed me over from my old blog know, had leukemia (twice) so my attention was pretty much otherwise diverted. Fast forward to two weeks ago.

I noticed the cyst was itchy and feeling uncomfortable, but still totally ignorable until one morning I wake up with a golf ball on my back. Huh? So I go to my GP, she says we need to remove it but no hurry so go ahead and go through the hospital (free national health system in Italy, takes longer but did I mention free?). But then I start worrying about having a big ole scar on my back and I call a friend who’s a plastic surgeon (thank god for vanity) who sees me last week and yells at me awhile. When he got done yelling he put me on antibiotics (did I mention the cyst was egg-sized at this point?) and scheduled the “procedure” for this week.

The entire time I was pretty relaxed, though annoyed at the stupid itchy, painful hump on my back, I figured I’d go to his office, he’d put an anesthetic cream on my back, cut it out and off I’d go. (HA,HA, HA, snort)

So Tuesday I go to the private patient wing of the hospital and that’s how I found myself a few hours later on the operating table of an honest to goodness operating room, covered in green sheets, attached to a host of machines, with three people working on my back. The cyst is being biopsied, I’m positive it’s fine, but I kind of feel like an ass. First of all I’m in a certain amount of pain right now, with a drainage tube and stitches in my back, second of all I can’t lean back on anything bed, car, couch, so I’m pretty cranky and uncomfortable, and lastly I have to listen to repeated renditions of the husband’s variations on “didn’t I tell you, you should have gotten that looked at sooner?”.

The consequences of procrastination are annoying, sometimes painful, and often a bit humiliating. Also, I wouldn’t have had a scar on my back had I done this two years ago, and the husband wouldn’t be gloating. I really hate it when he’s right.