Nicole feels

Today was The Extraction.

Translation: an aesthetician popped K@ytlin's zits.

Two weeks ago, after the mole removal (which was benign, by the way), the derm gave Kay a prescription for Ret1n-A M1cro. Poor darling has been struggling with that dreaded pre-teen, I-am-too-hormonal-for-my-own good affliction called acne.

Since K@y is just too cute to be bothered with that mess, I'd promised her a trip to a derm after Christmas. Then we saw the mole, and it became a secondary issue, but still an important one for our almost-13-year-old-who-still-thinks-she-is-a-princess.

So, upon looking at her face, the doc writing a scrip, and the nurse slipping me a handful of samples, we set a 2 week return appointment for an extraction.

Now, I really had no clue what that entailed. To be honest, I was envisioning the aesthetician wrapping a giant B1ore strip around Kay's face and giving it a good yank. After all, the derm told us that the Ret1n-A would draw all the crap (let's face it, that is the best description for that stuff) to the surface, and then the aesthetician would extract it.

And lo and behold, it was really nothing more than a glorified zit-popping.

My apologies to those of the queasy stomach.

For those inquiring minds that want/need to know, this is how it worked. The aesthetician took a sharp metal tweezer/needle looking thing, poked about Kay's face, and then used two long cotton swaps to squeeze the infected areas and then wiped away the, you know, stuff.

Rob's comment: "You mean we could have just popped those babies ourselves at home?"

I am forcing myself to believe that this is a kindler, gentler way to pop one of those little nasties, to prevent scarring and such.

We'll see how I feel about all that when the bill comes in, eh?