I was at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Rainbow Drive with my mom to get a checkup for something I found in my nose. Last week, I looked into the mirror and found a peculiar, white thing in my nose. My mom and I both felt concerned about it so she immediately booked an appointment with the doctor in case that it wasn’t potentially harmful. When I arrived at the office, I plopped down on the couch and waited for my mom to fill in the information sheet. When it was time to see the doctor, I walked into the doctor’s office feeling annoyed. He then did his boring routine checkup, which I always had to endure, except this time I was slightly more worried.

     “So what is this about a white object in your nose?” the doctor inquired.

     “Umm, I think I just looked into the mirror and saw it there out of nowhere,” I replied.

     The doctor had an intrigued expression and looked inside my nose with a special camera. After taking some photos and analyzing it, he concluded that it was a nasal polyp. A polyp was growing in my sinus, but it wasn’t so dangerous. The problem was, the only way to remove it was by surgery. My mom started pleading the doctor if there was anything else that could be done. The doctor sympathized, but the only thing he could do was reassure her that the surgery was the only treatment. He prescribed me some medicine and scheduled the surgery for a month later. How could life get any worse than this?

     After my mom drove me home, I ran up to my room and put my head in my hands. I shut the door to be left alone but my mom came in anyway. My mom came over and tried to comfort me but my emotions were as stiff as a rock.

     “Why did this have to happen?” I asked myself, almost tearing up, “I never deserved anything like this to happen.”

    “Look,” my mom said, “These types of things happen to people so don’t worry. You’ll get through it and doubt that it was a bad thing.”

    It sounded convincing enough, but I was pretty sure that my mom was lying to get me to calm down. I was still sad about the whole ordeal but I didn’t think much about it afterwards.

     A month quickly passed and it was already time for the surgery. I was waiting at the hospital doors to open early in the morning before dawn. I was shivering, my teeth were chattering, and my knees were shaking. My family was there to comfort me to make sure I wasn’t frightened. I felt like I was in a freezer so I hopped into my mom’s warm embrace.

     Finally, after a long wait, the doors opened and we walked in. The sudden rush of hot air brushed past me and I had the sense of joy. We checked in with the nurse and she walked us to the operation wing of the hospital. I looked around me and saw all these different and unique tools. Suddenly, I burst out asking questions.

     “Hey mom, do you know what those machines do?” I asked her, “Ooh look at that machine!”

    “You know, maybe it’s better to stay quiet and respect the doctors here. Okay?” my mom replied.

     “Fine. Not like you would know either.”

    The nurse took my pulse with a clip. The pressure was so tight, it was like the blood-flow was getting cut off. After that, she brought me over to the bed and told me to change into the gown. I had seen the same gowns in TV shows and movies about hospitals. I was afraid they were going to cut up my insides and blood was going to splatter everywhere. The thought of it just made me shudder. I quickly put it on and told her that I was done.

     “Now you have to go to sleep for the surgery. I’ll put anaesthetics in your arm to make you sleep,” the nurse said.

     “Does it hurt when it goes into your arm?” I said since I was always fussy about needles.

     “We’ve had people before who got tattoos crying from the pain. I’m pretty sure you can handle it better than they did.”

    As the nurse put in the needle, I realized that it wasn’t so bad. It was only a sharp jolt of pain but then it abruptly subsided. I thought about how grown men could ever cry from a needle. I quickly forgot about it since the surgery was almost starting. The nurse told me to go to sleep so that the anaesthetics could take effect. My family stood over me waiting for the surgery to begin. I slowly took in a breath and exhaled deeply staring up at the ceiling. I shut my eyes and everything turned dark. Soon, all noises faded into the background and I heard nothing.

     “What just happened?!” I said abruptly.

     The next moment, I woke up with a startled look. The actual events of the surgery were unknown to me so I had no clue what they did. I looked around and saw my family stretching from sitting down for so long. I had slept for so long but my shoulders felt heavy and tired. Suddenly, I realized that there was an empty feeling in my nose. The operation was successful!  My family came in and was happy to see me. Before they could even say a word, I slumped off and fell asleep again. My family checked with the nurse to make sure I was fine and drove me home. After we got home, everyone took a nap for quite a while.

     When I went back to the doctor he said that he had some news for me.

     “You know your surgery? Well, your polyp was huge when it came out. Most polyps are only the size of my nail, but yours was the size of my entire pinky!” the doctor told me.

     “Really? How could it be that big?” I asked him.
     “It probably just grew bigger than the others or it had more time to grow. But anyway, that’s the biggest polyp I’ve ever seen. It might even be a world record!”