"The New Plan" and "An Interesting Distinction"

Hi everyone! Well, I've got a new plan, and I'm relieved that I'm not going to have to wait another 6 weeks for some action. I'm taking control and getting a second opinion on my skin lesions from another dermatologist, one who actually specializes in skin cancer. I'm going to the Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit http://www.karmanos.org/ I read a few articles about Canadians going down there for second opinions, treatment or even surgery, and after some lengthy conversation with their International Client Care department, have decided to give it a go. You must be asking why I'm going to the US for a second opinion? Well, first of all because my own GP discouraged me from getting a second opinion and I suspect its only because of his ego (he owns the practice and "would only hire the best"). Well, she may be the best, but her specialty is cosmetic dermatology. That's "the interesting distinction" that I hadn't considered before: each dermatologist has a specialty, and I should have know from the fancy sign in the GP office "spider veins, botox, etc." that Derma #3 doesn't specialize in cancers of the skin. So, I made sure that the doctor I'm seeing, and actually - her team will review my case as well while I'm there - specialilzes in skin cancer. Thank you. Now THAT makes sense to me. And other than an annoying 4 hour drive to get there, the consultation and assessment and recommendations is going to cost me $400 USD. I think my peace of mind is worth $400 USD. Not to mention that I get to see her in 10 days! Thank you Lord! So I'm off to Detroit for my appointment on November 8th. And you can be sure I'll have a lot to report to you after that.

In the meantime, have I reminded you lately to check your skin? Especially those areas that get lots of sun and that you might not remember (shoulders, nose, ears, legs, tops of your feet)! Go, do it now!

Warning: Some gross skin pictures (not mine) on a doctor's blog

Just a quick update to show you this link (if you want to look - you don't have to, it's graphic!) of a doctor in France who blogs about his use of dermoscopy to diagnose skin lesions. But first, I will reassure you that MY skin lesions are tiny and beautiful and I am still very, very attractive!!!!!) It was important that I remind you of that!!!

; )

So here's the link to his blog. Reader beware!!!

http://dermoscopic.blogspot.com/

Dermascopic Imaging - Where can I get it?

Ok, so it turns out that what I was looking for at my photo shoot on Wednesday does actually exist somewhere; it's called dermascopic imaging. I just can't seem to figure out where in North America I can have a dermascopic evaluation done. Anyone with refined internet search skills or connections to dermatologists is welcome to see if they can find out for me.

My back has been bothering me over the past few weeks, more sensitive than usual; and not in the muscular sense. Sometimes water in the shower can cause pin prick-like pain (nothing very painful though, so don't worry!) and overall I feel ill-at-ease in my skin. Honestly, I would pay a chunk of money right now (ok, so my idea of a chunk of money is not the same as others!) to have someone give me some kind of dermascopic evaluation, which, from the very little I have read, seems to be an excellent tool to distinguish betweeen "regular" lesions and cancerous lesions. Frankly, I think the naked eye is also a pretty good tool if you could get a doctor to pay enough attention!

OK, so I promised that I wouldn't complain, and I don't want to be a complainer, because after all, so far this is not a big deal. It's just that mentally it occupies a lot of my time. It's the control-freak in me, the "I want it NOW!" part that has been fostered in my society. Not to mention that an itch you can't scratch is REALLY annoying!!!! I might need to train in body contorsions to get to not only see, but scratch those annoying bits of skin.

My all-time favourite film is "Silence of the Lambs" and I've thought about that movie a lot over the past few weeks. You remember the crazy dude who is making an outfit out of skin? He likes the "chubbier" girls cuz he can get more skin out of them. I remember the scene when he's checking out the girls back, admiring her skin on her back. Perfect.... mmmmmmm....... My husband should watch out, because I've been eyeing his back lately. Honestly the skin on his back is gorgeous. Soft and smooth and barely any marks. Deeelicious! For his own safety, he should sleep on his back until I get over this obsession!

For now, I say a big hello out there to my wonderful family and friends who are being so supportive; THANK YOU! I'm so glad that you're reading the blog. It helps, it really does!

A Short Update on the Photo Shoot

Yes, well, there's unfortunately not much to report from my skin photo shoot today! If I had thought the process worthy of taking a picture, I would have, however, this puny little drawing just about sums it up:

It basically took 20 minutes - including taking off my clothes and putting on disposable undies (!!) - and she only took maybe 15 pictures, and she was standing about 6 - 8 feet away from me. So much for my vision of high-tech up close, high-res, multi-skin layer photos. I should have done this at home with my hubby and spared me the gross experience of wearing disposable underwear (however, they were thong, so there's something to be thankful for; I can't stand granny panties!)

Anyway, I'm still waiting for the December 3rd and December 8th appointments unless someone cancels (anyone out there, please?) and I get in. In the meantime, I'm taking a few days off work to think and take care of me, as tomorrow it's been one week since I found out about BCC, and to tell you the truth I still know nothing. But on a happy note, I had a friend visit, she's an almost-homeless lady that I've known for years, and she looked me in the eye today (and truly I can see Jesus in her) and said something really profound which really made me feel gratitude and the true purpose of this life. The sad part is that I can't remember a single word she said! Needless to say, she was right, regardless of how she said it, "We should be grateful for what we have, and for what we don't have. Life is life, but there's better to come." Amen!

Tomorrow is "picture day"!

For those of you who have children, this is not the kind of picture day you're thinking of as I'll be more concerned about what I look like without clothes on than what I will actualy wear (although, knowing me, I'll try to put together a cute little outfit for the occasion.) My scars from the biopsies a few weeks ago seem to be healing nicely, and are now pretty much red blotches. The BCC one however, does still have some dryness in the area like it did before the biopsy. If you read about BCC and other skin cancers, that crusty layer is not a good sign. However, I've always had sensitive skin, so it could be just my healing process, or a reaction to the bandaids.

I'm eager for tomorrow's "photo shoot" as I know I will feel better when someone has taken a really close and thorough look at my skin all over my body. I had a lesion removed from my leg years ago, but no one has looked at my legs since then (well, not in THAT way at least!). I'm also hoping that if the technician sees something he doesn't like, then maybe that will speed up getting the skin cancer specialist to look at the photos. Currently I couldn't get an appointment until December 8th - that's 5 days AFTER my currently scheduled further surgery of my BCC site (to remove a "margin" of skin around the site and burn/cauterize the area too; she mentioned something about doing that three times. Sounds like fun!) Believe me, it's not painful and it's like fun time compared to the repeated colonoscopies I had as a tweenager (TMI??).

I'm going to bring my camera to the appointment tomorrow and see if they'll let me take a pic of the camera and/or any other instruments they use. I hope this clinic is as good as I expect them to be!!!!

So, for now, thank you for reading and I'll update you tomorrow! Now go take a good look at your skin!

The Post with the Pictures

Ok, I'm back. Hair is done and I went to work for a few hours, and now I'm back to the blog. Where was I in my rambling??? Oh, I think I was alluding to the fact that general practitioners sometimes don't have the energy, the time or the bedside manner that we would like. This leads me to a little history lesson about my skin. Lesson #1: I am not old. No matter what any 20 year old might tell you, I am not middle aged... yet! Lesson #2 As a child we frolicked in the sun and got sunburns, but hey, it was the 70s and who didn't? Lesson #3 As a child I was on immuno-suppressant drugs because of Crohn's disease. Apparently all of these facts should be of interest to a dermatologist, but didn't happen to be of interest to mine. Apparently too, these are common factors that make fair-haired, blue-eyed people like me even more at risk for skin cancer. Did my dermatologist tell me that? Nope.

Did I mention that this was dermatologist #3 that I've seen in the past 8 years? You'll see other dermatologists handiwork in the pictures below - there are some old scars next to my new scars. Can I tell you about my dermatologists? #1's name was Walter. That was also my dad's name, so I liked him immediately. Unfortunately he liked me too, and despite the fact that he could have BEEN my father, we spent the whole session talking about me (like a blind date!) instead of him looking at my skin. Sorry, Walter. Dermatologist #2 came highly recommended - so much so that you should expect to wait at least an hour for your appointment, and you'll have to stand as there were not enough seats. However, the most interesting part about Dermatologist #2 was that when you meet him, you think maybe HE's the one who should be seeing a dermatologist. Eek. Bad skin. However, I do give Derma#2 credit as he did diagnose me as having "dysplastic nevi syndrome", and although he didn't explain to me what it was, once I figured out how to spell it, google helped me learn all about it. Do you want to know what it is? Well I'm going to tell you anyway. Dysplastic nevi syndrome (from what I understand from my friends google and wiki) refers to a person having a high number of moles that are uneven in shape, size and colouring. Unfortunately, dysplastic nevi can also lead to skin cancer, or can mask skin cancers as they are dismissed as just another unusual mole. Anyway, is this boring you to tears? I'm sure it is. How about some pictures to make this more interesting???

Below, in this first picture you'll see the handiwork of Dermatologist #3. This actually is the site of what we recently came to know as the cancerous guy, BCC. But like the dermatologist said, "ah, you're too young, and it's no big deal". OK then! So here's my dear BCC site soon after its removal:

You'll notice to the left of dear BCC, the scar left by another handiman who years ago thought I had a skin lesion he didn't like. He warned me that he wasn't the best at soutures, thus the obvious scar! The picture below is the dear BCC site a day or two before the stitches came out - and before we knew he was bad. Well, really, I don't fault him, he is what he is, and he does what he does. But the site still doesn't look healthy to me!

Now the next two pictures show you a few other marks that look just like the ones I had removed. When I was told that I would need to come back for more surgery to my original BCC site, I asked if she would remove these guys too, since they don't look good. Her answer? Let's see what they look like in two months. Don't you think that's a GREAT PLAN? Let's let them grow bigger and then see if there's something wrong with them. Not to mention that they look like their BCC buddy, so you know what, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Take em off, I don't care about scars (see my first post for confirmation of this statement). Take a peek:

I call this one "No one likes the new guy..."

 "...or his friends"

Can you see another scar below this last guy? Bottom left. More handiwork from that doctor years ago who didn't like the look of something.

To get back to last Thursday, the day I was told that I had BCC, needless to say I was frustrated by the doctor, and cranky that it's really true that in this day and age you need to be your own advocate. Trust me everyone, you know your body better than anyone else. If you feel something or see something that's not normal for you, go get it checked out! Also, when you get cranky and find out you have BCC, you are allowed to eat all the cheese you want. I had cheese on a baguette followed by cheese on pasta, followed by cheesies (the crunchy kind thank you). I'm sure that somewhere is some skin cancer documentation this is the first official step to dealing with BCC: pigging out on cheese.

So what am I going to do next on this journey? Well, I'm going to have a high-tech mole mapping thingy done on Wednesday. I'm not waiting until my surgery in December thank you very much. Although this high-tech procedure isn't covered by OHIP I think it's worth it. From what I understand they take high-tech images of the various parts of your skin, and from these pics there's a chance at early detection of atypical skin cells. Good to note as well that just because buddy #1 is BCC doesn't mean that the others couldn't be another type of skin cancer (there are 3 from what I understand), or they might be nothing at all. But for my own peace of mind, I'm getting things looked at closely. The worst part of all of this is the waiting, and the prospect of waiting another 7 weeks for anything to happen is going to drive me bonkers.

So until next time my friends, take care of your skin and make sure to check it over once in a while for irregularities. And since none of us can see our own back, taking pictures isn't a bad idea so that you can keep track for yourself. I'll post back again soon, and tell you all about the high-tech picture thingy.

; )

The First Post

So this is it. The beginning of my blog. What could I possibly be writing about, and why on earth do I think that anyone might want to read it? To tell you the truth, I don't care if anyone reads it. It's just that ever since this journey started (well at least the first bump in the journey) a few weeks ago, I've been wanted to express myself. Thank you Madonna, hey hey hey.

So the look, the title and everything else is just a first kick at the can until I get the hang of this. My BFF, we'll call her "W" (for things such as wonderful, woman etc.) started a blog almost a year ago (at my behest, if I do say so myself) and she's done a great job at it. Her blog though, makes you hungry. Really hungry. And it makes me look at my dinner (when I have to make it myself) and say, ho hum. My blog however, will not make you hungry, unless you are some sort of sicko. Hopefully my blog will make you take a closer look at yourself.... in particular, your skin.

Thus the title, Getting Under My Skin. This is not going to be a bitch and complain blog, no list of things that tick me off (well, maybe once in a while?), but more about knowing your skin, the largest organ in your body! I'll start at the beginning, but for now, I will say the following words of wisdom: Don't Worry! Got it? Don't worry. So, now that we've got that sorted out, I will tell you that last Thursday I was told I had BCC. Another acronym to throw around, BCC. Basal Cell Carcinoma. Now, remember, I told you NOT TO WORRY. This is no big whoop. Most of all, it's not on my gorgeous face, so it's really of no imminent concern!!!! I mean really, if it were on my face, as vain and superficial as I am, this would be a disaster. But its on my back. And since my bikini wearing days ended when I was potty trained, I'm not too worried about more sun exposure or scars. Besides, I think scars are awesome. My friend was told that he looked like the singer Seal, and I thought that was awesome. That guy is cool. I don't know how he got his scars on his face, but they are very cool.

Anyway, over the past few years I've had 10 pieces of skin removed, mostly on my back. Two weeks ago, I had 3 removed; two on my back and one, as I told my mother, over the thing that rhymes with "dipple". 10 stiches and two weeks later, the dermatologist tells me oh so non-chalantly, "You have basal cell carcinoma, but don't worry, we don't see it this young." I'm sorry, but I'm not following your logic. Anyway, this whole meeting was a disaster, because not only did she not give me any information on BCC, and dismissed two other skin lesions that look like the one that is BCC, when we got home (my hubby came with me), we realised that when she took out the stitches, she FORGOT one. Hello?????? Ok, so let's sum up this visit (which I worried about for over a week since I knew, I just knew, that something wasn't right): "Hi, oh, you have BCC, so let's take out your stitches. OK, so come back in two months for some surgery on that BCC, and don't worry about the other lesions, you're too young. See ya!"

There's so much more that I want to write, but darlings, I have a hair appointment! Hair trumps blog. Sorry! I'll be back later to tell the rest of the story - yes, there's more!!! I'll even post pictures of the wounds, just to keep this interesting.

Peace Out!