Especially to those of us deep, deep, deep in the closet.
If you have any suspicious moles, spots that won't heal or whatever PLEASE get it checked out ASAP.
I had (until yesterday) two lesions of my face. One dates back to 2013 when I had a dose of shingles that attacked my face. One spot on the end of my eyebrow never really healed, It didn't grow or hurt so I ignored it. Strike 1
I like many people do get the odd pimple. Most of the time they go away. I had one on the tip of my nose. It never really healed and along came COVID so I ignored it. Strike 2
Now some years later, I was still ignoring it but people could not help notice the 'thing on the end of my nose'. I ignored them. Strike 3
Earlier this year, I was at a weekend Crime Writing event and a doctor told me in no uncertain term 'Get it seen too'.
Fast forward to yesterday. I had both seen too. The one on the end of my nose required a small skin graft. It was all done under local anesthetic so the most painful part was the needle.
I have 4 stitches in my eyebrow and 4 just in front of my ear (the skin graft donor point) and on the end of my nose a weird dressing held in place by 4 more stitches.
I was 'on the table' for nearly 90 minutes.
It is around 90% certain that neither was malignant. I'll know by the time the thing (dressing) on my nose is removed this time next week.
Please people, if you have any skin problems, get a doctor to look at it. The GP will probably refer you to the Dermatologist but even it is nothing, you can rest easy.
Samantha,
Oh, and if you can, get yourself vaccinated against Shingles especially if you had Chicken Pox as a child. I was working in Jordan when I got it. Sitting in a Hotel room for a week is no fun I can tell you.
If you get it on your face, the virus can infect the optic nerve and leave you blind in that one. You have been warned.
Comments
As a survivor of Melanoma……
I couldn’t agree more. A few years ago, I noticed a mole on the upper right portion of my back seemed to be rubbing on my bra strap. That had never been a problem before - hence why it stood out. Over the course of a few weeks, it seemed to be getting more irritating. So I decided to have it removed.
I did a little research, and discovered a dermatologist near my home that could do the job.
Then Covid hit and everything was put on hold as doctor’s were not seeing patients in their offices except for life threatening or very serious issues - and this was not what I considered life threatening. Once the restrictions were lifted a few months later, I made an appointment and had the mole removed, a very simple procedure that didn’t even require stitches. They sent it out for testing, and joy of joys, it tested positive for melanoma. I was diagnosed as stage IIIC.
Fast forward through a pile of tests to surgery, where I had a section about three inches in diameter removed from my right upper back, as well as two lymph nodes from my neck. Luckily, nothing had spread beyond those lymph nodes (the cancerous cells were encapsulated within two nodes), so that is all they needed to do and my diagnosis was adjusted to stage IIIB. Thanks to the recent advances in treatment, I was able to go through 12 months of immunotherapy; an infusion of Keytruda every three weeks for twelve months to boost my immune system to fight cancer. I was very lucky to only have a “minor” reaction to the treatments - on my next to last treatment, I suddenly started having serious joint pains. I ended up losing about 50 pounds in weight over the course of about five weeks, suffering serious pain, and being barely able to walk - I was literally using a cane to walk.
Soooooo…….. they put me on Prednisone (60mg to start) and suddenly all was right with the world, lol. That shit is wonderful. Within about six hours, the pain was gone and I was moving like normal. Of course, I was on the prednisone for about four months, with the dosage constantly reduced to get me off of it. I put about 40 pounds back on - and now I am back to fighting to keep my weight down just like before. Too bad I couldn’t keep more off, but unfortunately one of the side effects of prednisone is weight gain making it harder to keep some of the weight I lost off.
Anyway, the good news is that I have now been four years cancer free. I am still undergoing periodic PET scans, visits to the oncologist (who still can’t believe I had a reaction that late into the treatment regimen - we all thought I was going to be lucky and make it through without issue) on a regular basis for blood work and exams, and twice yearly visits to my dermatologist for a full body scan. And if I hadn’t already lost all modesty as a transgender patient at a teaching hospital, let me tell you having regular full body scans would have done it! Nothing like having someone go over every inch of your naked body with a magnifying glass every six months to rid you of any body hang ups, lol.
I am very lucky; I had a friend die a little over ten years ago from melanoma. Luckily for me, I had it checked early enough before it became really bad, and luckily the treatments have advanced considerably since he died. I do have a nice scar which has thankfully faded quite a lot running down my upper right back just beside my shoulder blade, and a very faint line on the right side of my neck, both of which remind me of the errors of my youth. Yes, my youth. You see, they tell me that most skin cancer is due to something that happened to you between the years of seven and twelve - which makes perfect sense in my case. As a child, I grew up between Southern California and the Florida Space Coast. My father was an aerospace engineer, so we lived where his job took him. During the mid to late 60’s, that meant Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Merritt Island, Florida. I was one of those kids you saw running around in just a pair of shorts and no shirt, or hanging at the beach which was only three blocks from our house. When I was seven years old, I was badly sun burned across my back and shoulders - to the point it blistered. Of course no one thought anything of it back then, but guess where I got the skin cancer 50 years later????
My point here is don’t wait. If you see something, have a doctor look at it. I got lucky in that it was positioned so that my bra strap rubbed it; otherwise I would never have known I had an issue until it was too late. My spouse and children are much more aware now, and are very careful of their exposure to the sun. My wife and my youngest son have become the Sun Block Nazis, lol. Yes, I still go outside, and yes, I still wear sleeveless tops and shorts, as well as a bathing suit; I am not going to go around dressed in a burka! But I do use at least SPF 50 when I am outside for any amount of time. And yes, I still have a tan from working in the yard, etc., but I am much more careful now - no sun burns.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I had shingles
I thought I didn't need to worry about shingles. I was told that you only needed to worry about shingles if you had had chicken pox, As a child I skated on most of those childhood diseases that were common in the 40s and 50s. no measles (rubeola) which my family called, "hard measles," only German Measles (rubella) or three-day measles and no chicken pox or so we thought. That is no one ever noticed any symptoms on me.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, "you can’t get shingles unless you’ve had chickenpox." Well, I got shingles. It manifested as to rows about a dull pencil line width on my forehead. One started at the end of my right eyebrow nearest to my nose and went up for about two or three inches. The second started about a half inch to the right and an inch above the eyebrow and ran up into my hair line. That was it, a very light case. That is except for a complication of a secondary infection in my right eye. It developed as a thick mucus that distorted my vision. I had to drive with that eye closed. And of course it struck at time when I had no medical insurance. After it became apparent that it wasn't getting any better, I found a county health care clinic that would see me for free. They supplied me with a cream that I had to apply directly to the eyeball. Fun... not! Twice a day I had to grease my eyeball. That knocked it in about a week, but they told me to continue treatment until all the medicine was gone.
Four years later, when I went for my CDL physical, the doctor there notice that my right eye was slow in reacting to light changes and told me that she's give me a 30 day medical card and that I needed to get an eye exam to determine why that was so. If they determined that it wasn't the optical nerve then I could get my usual two-year card. I got the exam and it seems that the infection in my eye caused some of the pigmentation in the iris to flake off and it was jamming up the works as the segments of the iris move against each other. I took a week off work so I could treat that with very strong dilating drops that force that eye to dilate to the max. I had to wear sun glasses even in the house.
I was very fortunate in two ways. First my shingles outbreak was a very mild case and second that the eye infection didn't attack the optic nerve.
When my kids were young the youngest got a typical case of chicken pox. Her sister however only showed one blister. If it hadn't been where it was noticeable, we'd have never known she had it. I'm thinking that was the case for me. Only one blister and it went unnoticed because my siblings were typical cases and required attention from my parents.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
When I was younger……
Probably around five or six, I actually remember my mother sending my sister and I to a friends house to play with her daughter. I later found out it was because her daughter had chicken pox, and my mother was purposely exposing the two of us to it. We both had minor cases of chicken pox a few days afterward, and were over it a few days later.
We were also exposed to scarlet fever through a neighbor’s daughter, although that one was accidental as no one knew she had it until after we were exposed. I can remember having to go to the nurses office at school so that I could be given a pill each day for about a week after the exposure - which was a prophylactic dose of antibiotics prescribed by a doctor as we had been exposed. Luckily, I did not get sick from that exposure.
Based on my having had chicken pox, last year I went to the pharmacy and got the Shingrix vaccine. It is a series of two shots. My spouse and I both did it. She had some minor side effects, sore arm, tired and slight fever, while I had none.
Having seen people who have suffered from shingles, get the vaccine. I have no desire to go through that!
I have had so many vaccines over the course of my life that I have lost count. Between polio, rubella, small pox, tetanus, etc., not to mention all the shots I had through the US Navy before going overseas, I can’t remember just what I have been inoculated against without checking my medical records. Hell, I’m not even sure exactly what the government shot me up with, lol.
I will say this - to all the conspiracy theory idiots out there, there is no issues with my children due to the inoculations. And there is no evidence whatsoever of any correlation between vaccines and autism, etc.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
The Chicken Pox virus
remains in your system for life once you have had the disease.
It is dormant until later... then it wakes up and bingo you have shingles.
I've had Leukemia (at age 56) and had no immune system at all after the Chemo. It survived all that only to hit me 4 years later.
GET THE VACCINE. In the UK, if you eligible then you can get it from a Pharmacist without the need to involve your doctor.
Samantha
Gotta Love Naval Innoculations
I think I remember..., over a hundred guys bare assed naked walk past several medical teams each holding an air needle gun. Each time they say don't move as they give a shot. Some of the guys did and they looked like they had been slashed with a razor, blood dripping off their fingertips. Any modesty anyone had after that had to be long gone. Good indoctrination to the communal bathrooms, open toilets, open showers, excellent way to get large groups in and out in a hurry.
Hugs D.Eden
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
shingles vaccine
It's free (no deductible) from a pharmacist if you have medicare or medicaid in the U.S. Before they started covering it I had skipped the vaccine as the cost was prohibitive. I had pain and swelling from both shots, but not nearly as painful as I have observed shingles to be.
Shingles
Well, I did get my roof done last year :)
As far as the shingles vaccine goes. There is a study out that seems to show a correlation between getting the shingles vaccine and a reduced likelihood of getting a dementia. A win-win I would say. And yes I got mine last year.
The sad part is that I got a case of chicken pock. No that is not a misspelling imho as I literally had a single pock on my body.
I am now getting a recommendation to get the herpes (B? C?) one also.
If I am to travel overseas one day, it might be worth it.
Skin Cancer
Well, I don't know if you use sunscreen or not but I will bring it up anyway.
Use sunscreen if you are fair skinned.
Being of Asian descent I have decent resistance to the sun.
I grew up without ever using a speck of sunscreen during the summer and trust me I got a lot of sun exposure from my 20 mile bike rides north of NYC and all around town and never ever got even a hint of redness.
I found however that reflected UV from the water is more intense though and after two hours learning how to swim, without wearing sunscreen, left me with slightly warm skin on my upper back which thankfully went away the following day. I did not get a sunburn but the warning was clear, wear it whenever you plan to be in extended sun exposure.
Edit: I see that Dallas has already brought it up so I am just amplifying the point.
Anyone
who has met me will know that a) i'm blonde - at the roots at least, and b) i'm fair skinned, this is mostly due to several doses of Baltic genes in my ancestry.
I'm keenly aware of how quickly i burn, thirty minutes is easily enough to turn white to red, so i act accordingly. However, once the tanning is initiated i toast well which is just as well given i've always had a very outdoors lifestyle/hobbies. That doesn't mean i carry on regardless, i'm certainly not a sun worshipper, i do keep a watch for anything new and have seen enough lesions on others to know what i'm looking for.
As regards Shingles / Chicken Pox, i had a dose of the latter when i was about ten, i was extremely ill with it, some of the postules turned septic which resulted in about 6 weeks off school and extended doses of penicillin (a sweet, bright pink concoction twice a day). I still have scars from that to this day. As a result, when it was jab day just after starting secondary school, i was the only one not getting stuck as i'd been given them all previously as a precaution after my adverse time with 'the pox'. Must've worked, i never had any other childhood ailments.
We can all be a bit blase' with our health but it's one thing that we can influence for free so whether its checking for skin lesions or eating a bit healthier, look after yourselves.
Madeline Anafrid Bell