Good morning. How are things going this morning? It looks like it's going to be another hot day here and I'm SO ready for it start cooling off. 90+ degrees is simply too high for October when the leaves are falling off the trees.
Anyway, this has been a pretty quiet week but a nice one for a change. I had the appointment with my new dermatologist on Monday. I was somewhat disappointed that she didn't make a connection between my digestive and thyroid issues to my skin issues, but I guess I should have expected that. She did check me all over for suspicious spots to make to see if there was anything that could possibly be cancer or pre-cancer. I do have one place on my face, in the crease of my nose that she believes may be a squamous cell cancer. I couldn't tell her exactly how long it's been there, but know there's been a red spot there for a while, but because I couldn't tell her exactly how long it's been there, she wanted to wait a few weeks to see if it goes away before she does a biopsy (aka makes a scar on my face).
I've also had a lot of itching on my back and a spot on my side that's been itching... she said the itching on my back is caused by nerve endings deep under the skin and the only thing to do is try to control the itch. For that she recommended capsaicin. As you may know, that's what makes red peppers hot... try putting that on your back. Wow, it burns like fire, so of course, you forget all about the itch... lol Actually, it does stop the itch, but yes, it also burns for a while. And for several days if I shower in hot water or if the sun shines directly on my back. I did use capsaicin for a while for my peripheral neuropathy but it stopped working for that. It is working for the itch but I do have to be mindful of what I'll be doing after I put it on.
She zapped off a small red spot that resembled a petachaie on my side that had turned to a purple color. I'm not sure why it turned color... she said it was benign, but the itching has definitely stopped there. I was glad she was willing to go ahead and remove it rather than making me schedule a separate appointment to do it.
I also have a large red rash on leg that's been there for a couple years or more. It, too, itches quite badly, at times, and I'd begun to get a smaller one on my ankle. My pcp had prescribed a steroid cream for the one on my leg and it went away until I stopped using the cream, then it came back right away. The dermatologist said she's pretty sure this is a fungal infection. She said she could also take a sample of that to confirm, but decided to try a cream for that instead of making another scar on my leg. I'm to use the cream for 2 weeks and so far (a week into it), it's not having much effect on it but maybe the second week will have more effect.
I'm to go back in mid November to let her check, both my lip and my leg and at that time, she'll take samples of each (if they aren't gone) to determine what each spot is, then we'll go from there.
I did have some fun this week... Our city has a Friday night Art Walk, in which artists and crafts people set up tables/booths on the downtown streets and display the things they've made that are for sale or to advertise different groups, etc. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've joined a calligraphy guild which also has a booth at the Art Walk to advertise the guild to try to get the word out to people who might be interested in joining or taking classes. Anyway, I volunteered to help man the booth on Friday night, which was a lot of fun.
Calligraphy is something I've wanted to do for a long time and they started some beginner classes this fall so I joined the guild and signed up for a couple of classes. Obviously, I'm not the world's best calligrapher, but I've spent quite a bit of time practicing and I do my best. At the booth on Friday night, we made bookmarks with people's names on to give away. It was really nice to see how appreciative they were, especially kids, when they got something with their name written in pretty letters.
Yesterday, I attended another class to learn a different script. It's mind boggling to spend all day in a class to learn a single script because there's so much to cram into one day. Although I enjoyed it immensely, when I came home at the end of the day, both my mind and body were so tired. I was disappointed that I didn't do as well as some of the other students in the class until they told me they'd taken the class 3 times and they practice at home... I didn't feel so bad, then considering that they had a considerable head start on me because they already knew the steps to making the letters, etc and were just perfecting their technique, whereas I was starting from scratch... Once I start practicing, I'll get much better, as well. I know that because I've already practiced the script I learned in the class I took a couple of weeks ago so I'm getting better at that one... I'll continue to get better at both. How's that for confidence? lol
Weight-wise - I haven't weighed yet this morning, because I know I weigh more when I first get up than I do later on. It didn't used to be that way... For a long time I had to weigh first thing after I used the bathroom and before I drank anything in order to get my lowest weight; now it's not working that way... I have a lot of pain when I first get up in the morning - my entire body hurts from being still over night. I'm assuming, also, that there's a lot inflammation that causes the stiffness/pain and swelling, which is apparently adding a pound or so to my weight. Once I've been up for a while and had a chance to move around, some of the stiffness/inflammation and fluid dissipates and my weight drops. That's the only explanation I can come up with for that kind of a drop because it's not like I'm doing great exercise or anything during that time.
Anyway, I'll go weigh in a few minutes and will post that later.
That's my week; it was nice to have some things turn out right for a change - how about you? I hope everything went the way you had it planned.
~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~