My PSA for the day

I've been clicking once a day now for probably three years. In honor and memory of my friend Glo who I never got the opportunity to meet in real life because breast cancer took her too damn early. I have this site in my favories and click once a day. It's not hard. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't cost me one thin dime. And it helps women who could not otherwise afford it, free mamograms. I don't do much asking for anything on my blog. But this is near and dear to my heart. I am asking you to add this to your list of things you do on the computer every day. It only takes a second. Thank you!

http://http//www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2

Dermo good news!

Finally!

Went back for my check today and she was very pleased with how well all three sites have finally healed. The last one we did is completely healed and she says it should have very little scarring. The first two sites were a bit more complicated. Since they had been done the longest and had the most damage, they are both gonna leave pretty nasty scars. They have both finally scabbed over and she said a lot of times, she will take the scab off, but she said we're better off leaving these alone with all of the problems we've had with them. So the scars will be worse, but they are covered with clothing 99% of the time, so I'm not worried about it. I'd rather have a couple of scars than the potential of having something cancerous left inside me. And since all three sites were looking so good, she said we could go back to the skin tag freezing. So she froze a bunch more and said she doesn't want to see me for three months unless I notice something that needs her attention. Woo Hoo!!

Dermo update/finally, some good news!

I thought I'd best update on my latest Dermo visit this past Tue. Yeah, I don't get in a hurry!

The stitches are GONE! All of them! They put butterflies on all three spots and she told me that if they came off before my return visit on the 19th, Nurse John could replace them. Other than that, there was nothing more we should do to them. No Vaseline. No bandages. No tape giving my skin a worse rash than the actual incisions! The butterflies came off the first night! So we've been replacing them daily, after my shower. And all three sites look so much better. The Dermo also seemed to think I could possibly be allergic to the nylon thread she used for the first two because they were both rather irritated. The last spot she cut off, she used something different to suture and it looked great. And the original two spots are doing so much better now that the stitches are out. I'm not constantly twisting and turning, trying to find a comfortable position where the stitches aren't pulling. Especially on the one in the small of my back. That one was brutal! So hopefully when I go back on the 19th, I can get the all-clear and we can once again, start attacking those dang skin tags!

Dermo revisited/The Old Grey Mare

I went back to the Dermo on Feb 3 to have two more abnormal cell spots cut off my back. One is in the small of my back, near the spine and the other is right where my bra strap meets the bra. I was to return on the 19th to have those stitches removed and a third spot that they keep calling my neck but I call my shoulder removed. Every day we have to treat the wounds with a Hydrogen Peroxide/water mix, then put Polysporin and a bandage on them. And we do that. Faithfully. So on the 19th, they tell me that the stitches are not ready to come out, the wounds aren't healing like they want and she gives me an Rx for a topical creme to put on the wounds instead of the Polysporin. I am also to use it on my foot, where they took the cyst off of it and it's still not healed. Okey dokey! They want to see me back in the office on the 26th. Well yesterday they hurt so bad, I couldn't stand it any longer. Nurse John said they were looking worse than they were with the Polysporin. He said if he didn't know any better, he'd say I was allergic to the new Rx. Well I called the office at 8:02 AM yesterday and once I had told her what was going on, she said to come in now. And the Dr agreed with Nurse John (hate it when he's right!) and said I was allergic to the Rx and if I had continued to use it, I probably would have ended up with a nasty infection and that opens up a whole new ballgame. So the $8.00 tube of ointment went in the trash. I am now using plain old Vaseline Jelly. That's it. Nothing more. She said that is the base for most ointments anyway and it doesn't have any other added "gunk" in it. She gave me a new oral antibiotic that I have to take 2x a day for two weeks. It also has an anti-inflammatory in it because the spots were so red and irritated. They have postponed taking the stitches out until Mar 10. She said taking them out before would only invite more trouble. I am amazed at how much better all of the sites feel, less than 24 hrs after I was seen. The one in the small of my back would throb with each heartbeat. It no longer does that. While it was necessary to get these cut out because of the abnormal cells, I think I'm gonna wait a while for them to take the 2 cysts off my arms. I'm gonna give my body time to heal. As everyone keeps reminding me, I'm not as young as I used to be!!

Seeing "Spots"

Ever since this post http://sue-thislife.blogspot.com/2008/08/todays-psa.html, I've been very proactive in checking my body. The "thang" in my ear that I'd had for years that ended up being basal cell scared the crap outta me. So in the last 6 weeks, I've had three different bumps come up. One on my left temple and one on each of my upper arms, in almost the exact spot on each arm! I had a Dermo appt scheduled for last week to have some skin tags around my neck frozen, but instead she took biopsies of the bump on my face and three additional spots on my back that she said looked "suspicious." I also had a growth on my left foot that I'd had about a year. She said it was most likely a cyst, as are the ones on my arms, but because the one on my foot was so large and was becoming painful, she would take it off as well and we scheduled that for Tue 20th. She said I'd have the biopsy results back in 4-6 weeks. This was on Wed 14th. They called me on Fri 16th. If I've learned nothing else, when the Dermo office tells you results in 4-6 weeks and they call you two days later, it's not gonna be good news. The spot on my temple was basal cell. Could I come in on Monday 19th while the Pathologist was there so they could do essentially the same thing to my temple as they did to my ear back in August. Cut off part of my face, have the Path freeze and cross-section it to make sure they got everything. If they did, sew me up and go home. If they didn't cut some more. Sure! I'd love to come and let you cut on me two days in a row!! I was at the office from 10:45 til almost 5 on Monday. Not fun. Sitting in a waiting room full of old farts bitching about how cold the waiting room is (it wasn't!) and clicky-clacking their dentures almost drove me to the nut house. I did get to leave for a while after they did the initial cutting, but it was not a fun afternoon. My Dermo is very good and she did get it all the first time, so they stitched me up and sent me home. Then I was back at the office bright and early at 8:30 AM on Tue to have the foot taken care of. Since this was a cyst, there was no need for a Psth report. She did find a "growth" that had attached itself to the muscle in my foot, so she has sent that to an outlab to have it tested. So now I've got a sore face and a sore foot, each with 6 stitches in them! I go back in two weeks to take the stitches out and she will then dig into the three spots on my back that showed "abnormal cells."

Once again I will say. Check yourself. Often. We women know how important our Breast Self Exams are. You do that once a month. When you do it, get into the habit of checking the rest of your body. Have your hubby check your back. We all know how much they love seeing us nekkid!! Make him work for the pleasure! Don't be like the lady they were telling me about the other day. She had a spot come up on her cheek. She ignored it. Monday, they had to take over half of her cheek off because of basal cell. When all she should have had was a small scar that would have been easily covered up with makeup. It's your body. You only get one. Take care of it.

Today's PSA

If you have a spot on your body that is troubling you, have it checked. I had a hard pea-size lump in my upper right earlobe for at least 10, maybe 15 years. It did not bother me, didn't hurt, never changed size. It was more of a cosmetic bother than anything else. I felt like if I knew it was there, everyone else would too. So I never wore my hair behind my ears for fear that someone would see it. I had asked the Dr about it on a few occasions and he told me it was probably a subcutaneous cyst, or something like that. Nothing to worry about. A couple of months ago I had a spot come up on my lower left leg. My wonderful nail tech, Elvira pointed out to me that it was growing, and getting darker. Something I had not paid any attention to. She said I needed to get it looked at. I also had a few moles that clothing irritated, so I figured I'd kill a bunch of birds with one stone and get everything looked at at once. So I scheduled an appointment. And two weeks ago they took three moles, the spot on my leg and the "thang" in my ear off. She seemed most concerned about the place on my leg because of the darkness and uneven-ness of it. Well they called me a week ago and it turns out that the thang in my ear had non-cancerous cells showing. So they wanted to do surgery on it. And yesterday I went in for that surgery. Turns out that my ear is an overachiever. That is to balance out the underachieving thyroid I've been blessed with! In addition to the non-cancerous cells, they also found basal cell cancer, the most common form of skin cancer. They removed all of the bad cells and because the ear has no extra skin and the spot was too large to stitch, they had to take a skin graft from behind my ear to close the divot left behind from the removal of the cells. So I am now the proud recipient of a Kotex-like pressure bandage on both my right ear and right neck! Thankfully, both can be taken off by my resident Dr John tomorrow for a more traditional bandage of gauze and tape! It is pretty painful because of the pressure bandage. I can feel my heart beat in my ear, but as I told someone earlier today, it's better than the alternative! I am a right side sleeper, which was next to impossible to do last night. Hopefully it will be a little less painful tonight so maybe I can sleep.

So if you have something on your body that you think might be suspicious, follow that voice in your head or feeling in your gut and get it taken care of. We lost a really good friend, Marc Clark almost 3 years ago to skin cancer that he let go too long and by the time it was found, had already gotten into his lymph glands and he only lived another 6 months after it was found. So in his memory, I ask, PLEASE...get yourself checked.

Edited to Add...Instead of NON-cancerous cells, that should read PRE-cancerous cells. Why do I catch these things AFTER I hit publish?!

PSA

Today's PSA:

If you have a pre-lit Christmas tree that is over 3 years old, it is now recommended that you replace your tree. Testing has been done and apparently the wires in the pre-lit trees are prone to twisting and crimping which can be a fire hazard. I saw this report on my local news last week.

Since ours is pre-lit and 5+ years old, I'm off to find a new tree. A non-pre-lit tree that is hopefully 4 ft tall. I'm over big trees. Want one that will fit on a small tabletop. Much easier to put up, take down and store.