Monday, February 15, 2016

A Touch of the Phage

There is only so long a person can go before some spots become bothersome. At the moment about 25% of my body is covered in sores and only 5% of that is appropriate for a general website. Indeed I joked with my husband today that perhaps the most people ever have seen my rear today and not to mention they took pictures. No worries folks he is not jealous since all of them were in lab coats. After a long wait I was able to get into a local dermatologist to identify my "rash". I have always had typical allergic rashes or hives but never anything lasting over 48 hours. For some reason I thought an expert would know right away what was wrong with me on site. Yet the physician assistant wasn't sure until she had see all 25%. My bottom is by far the worst and craggliest of all at the moment, though to be fair it's more my thigh than the buttocks proper.

Having a hole punched through my arm wasn't something I had expected. Indeed I found myself a little concerned when I saw one of the trays readied with anesthetic's a fresh scalpel and some other accouterments. When I think of a skin biopsy I really am thinking a needle puncture or a slice. To be fair the first thing they did was a scraping of the fresh sores on that same arm. I have a feeling no fungus was present because they immediately threw out the plausibility that it could just be some wacky fungal infection. I was sure it couldn't be fungus since I had already tried a specialized cream without improvement.

I mentioned that I was under diagnosis for autoimmunity and the doctor got more excited. I asked for a biopsy which ends with said hole in my arm that required two sutures. Hearing that they might play a key role in solving my mystery diagnosis went a long way. Of course the doctor also wants his own copies of my autoimmune testing now so he can try and break the case. I promised to bring along copies to my next visit of those from the Beaumont hospital system.

Standing up for myself in social situations has really paid off recently. It also has it's downfalls as my husband had to lead me away from a manager I was going to correct after he had been rude to us...and his coworker had found our product in less than two minutes right where it should have been. I wasn't about to interrupt his phone call to do it however which the husband used to urge me away. Correcting someone on their courtesy isn't a great use of my limited energy. This is where I mention the spoon theory came up recently again in conversation. Sometimes I have to remind myself since when I am feeling well I overspend and set myself up for failure come a symptomatic week.