Screen Test

  Part of this year's resolution to get some projects wrapped up is doing the medical stuff. I normally prefer to do these one at a time, but this year individual procedures repeated visits and timing was important on a couple as well.

The dental work was thrust on me sooner than wanted when an old crown broke off, taking what was left of the tooth with it, meaning I couldn't just have a new one put on. While I was having that checked out, I got a general checkup and found 3 cavities on the other side of my mouth. I decided to have them taken care of first, so I would have at least one useable side of my mouth fairly quickly. But the appointment to fill those cavities was only long enough to deal with one. Why didn't they tell me that only one was being done? So I made sure they scheduled a long enough time slot to take care of both remaining fillings on my next visit. On that next visit I had to wait a rather long time because an emergency had come up that had to be dealt with immediately. And took up enough time that they would only work on one of my teeth.

Anyway, after the three cavities were finally filled, I made an appointment with an oral surgeon to pull the root of my broken tooth. I had to wait three months for that to heal before they would put in the implant. Three more months to heal before they would put a crown on the post. Final step was accomplished last week.
 

 
Early on in that mess I had reached the time for my yearly skin cancer screening, an appointment I'd made a year ago at my last one. The dermatologist was rather rushed, not doing a very good job in my opinion, and had to be talked into checking a lump on my arm where basel cell carcinoma had been previously excised. He did a sloppy job of taking a sample resulting in quite a loss of blood on my part, with a bunch of stitches in my arm, and a big mess in the examination room. I was still glad he had checked it because I once again had basel cell. I had to make another appointment for a different doctor to carve it out. I still have a big divot in my arm. The two pictures above are a couple of days after the operation and then a couple of days after the stitches came out.

This year, for the health insurance I get through work, I had to visit my primary care physician for a regular check up, but I wanted to wait until my stitches were out, so more waiting, but there was a deadline, so not too much waiting allowed. I also got the pcp to arrange a colonoscopy. There's a family history of cancer, so I try to be very proactive. No polyps were found.






I still have to get new glasses, I'm going only six months between skin cancer screenings because of my recent operation, and the oral surgeon wants to check out how the dentist did in putting in my crown, but I think I am doing good in getting all this taken care of.

Spotting Proposition

Having lived an active outdoor life in spite of my fair and delicate skin's tendency to get sunburn, it was no real surprise that after a few years of living in Arizona a doctor pointed out some pre-cancerous lesions forming on my face and arms. Further examinations showed a bit of basil cell melanoma on one arm as well, which had to be cut out.

Yearly checks and yearly applications of liquid nitrogen kept things at bay, though a bit more was used every year and I did have a second basil cell removed.

20 years lived in Arizona with doctors well acquainted with these things, then I moved to Maine. A bit of searching for work before getting a job with health benefits and my own tendency to procrastinate made for a gap of years before I got myself checked again. The dermatologist did a bit of freezing, but also had to burn out two spots of basil cell.

2 more years before I get another check (shame on me!) Different dermatologist who says I have so many lesions (legions of lesions?) that he would rather try a different approach. Using a special ointment that would be, as the pharmacist put it "chemotherapy in a tube." Four weeks on my arms and two weeks on my face. It would attack both the seen and the unseen lesions. It would also look horrible as it attacked and destroyed them.


I did my arms first and showed my coworkers what was happening so as to prepare them when my face started looking like I'd escaped from the Zombie Apocalypse.

click a spot to enlarge the lot

Persistent Cyst Assist

 Many moons ago when I was in college, I noticed something at the base of my neck that I started calling my stress bump. It seemed to be more noticeable during times I was under more pressure, like finals. Gradually it just became part and parcel of my existence and I stopped thinking about it.

Fast forward a couple decades to Arizona, where I had been living for four or five years and just out of the blue, the stress bump got huge, irritated, and a pain in the neck. Went to the doctor's and found out I had a cyst. Some minor prep work and they were able to remove it in the office.

 Except a couple of years later I noticed I was getting my bump back. Went to the doctor's and they said a small bit obviously got left behind. It was still too small to be able to have any real chance of a successful removal, so let it sit. So it once again became part and parcel of my existence.

Flash forward again, this time I've been in Maine for about four or five years and it suddenly flares up again. I get an appointment to see a physician's assistant and he says "So you think you might have a cyst?" Fortunately he had nobody booked in the next time slot, so he was able to do the surgery right off. Though it did take him a lot longer than he thought it would, about an hour. And he said it was a BIG cyst.

Top photo is before going in. Second photo is two days after the operation. I had to wait 48 hours before I could get it wet (and remove the bandage.) The last shot is after the stitches were taken out.

In other back and body related items, I usually go in to a chiropractor once every month or two just for maintenance.  I was thinking I was overdue for a visit when I was hit with some nasty stomach virus that kept me out of polite company for most of a week. I wasn't wanting to have my body twisted while I was feeling that way, let alone what I might have done to the office, so I put it off. Then when I thought maybe it was safe to try again, the cyst hit. It was painful enough with me leaving it alone, so I was not going to have somebody stress it and reopen the wound. Finally with the stiches out more than a week ago I went in.

I have one particular spot that usually involves extra effort to get straightened. After a lot of effort to get other spots not usually troublesome, the bad one wasn't budging. The chiropractor was all but jumping up and down on top of me and getting nowhere. My muscles were too tensed up from all the recent stress on my system. The vibrating relaxation machines don't relax me 'cause they stir up all my phlegm and I end up coughing out a lung or two. So they tried fifteen minutes with electrodes attached. Still no luck. We're going to try again in two weeks after I've healed more and done some heat therapy on the area.

click on any photo for a closer, more disgusting look