Scattered Thoughts . . .

B ack in January, my primary care doctor referred me to the University of Vermont for some skin cancer on the side of my head.  At the time, I had all sorts of other significant medical problems including, but not limited to, an upcoming bone marrow biopsy so the skin cancer was pretty much forgotten or, at least, put on the back burner.  I had much more immediate problems including ongoing anaphylaxis and significant breathing problems so the skin cancer referral seemed insignificant at the time.   In the past month or two, we noticed that this growth of skin cancer has grown significantly so it was immediately put on the front burner again. Last week during my last medical appointment, when my primary care doctor found that I had not yet seen a doctor for the skin cancer she immediately looked to see what happened with her referral way back in January.  She noticed that the referral was indeed put into the online portal but it just sat there.  The special...

This is just a quick follow up on my latest biopsy. I had a rather fast-growing scabby growth on my neck so the doc cut out the growth and sent it off to the pathologist.  The doc called today to tell me this growth was non- cancerous...  so that is a big relief.  Our primary concern was whether or not this particular growth is cancerous or not. To be honest, I can't think of any other diagnosis which would be of concern and this is the only reason I headed to the doctor in the first place. Ruling out cancer is a relief. She asked how the growth is doing because some inflammation was found by the pathologist. She wasn't really sure what was inflamed but offered the idea of perhaps a hair follicle had become inflamed.  I've had time to think about this... First off... I've looked at hundreds of photos of inflamed hair follicles... this growth looked nothing like those photos. My growth was more spread out... and looked less like an inflamed pimple which is wha...

After struggling with the first five years or so of my illness so I could finally acquire an accurate diagnosis of my debilitating health problems (now that was a brutal five years), I knew I needed a break from medical appointments. Five solid years of medical appointments every few days... involving quite a few painful, invasive tests... is enough. I quickly came up with a new rule... absolutely no medical appointments through the summer...  June through September. I need a break... I need to enjoy life... I need to focus on me, not my health. For the most part, I've been successful with this rule over the past ten years. Sometimes, however, a rule must be broken. This is one such summer when this rule needed to be broken. As a result, my summer is now over and it is back to business, as usual. My business since procuring this insidious illness is managing medical exams, medical testing and medical care. We've been to the ophthalmologist five or six times in the past week...