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.

; )