Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Ah....

There's nothing quite like having a stranger looking at your bare ass to start the day!

Now, everyone, get your mind out of the gutter. My life is not all sex, sex, sex. This was a perfectly innocent, and long avoided, trip to the dermatologist. I know, I know, what does a dermatologist want with my ass? Well, you see, I have a skin condition (I've mentioned at least once here) called hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). Yeah, don't try to pronounce it. It's okay.

I was diagnosed with HS in 1999, but I've had it probably since about 1996. With this condition, one gets a boil (often in an inconvenient area like the armpit, groin or gluteal areas) which becomes worse or lingers and begins to form tunnels under the skin. It's a rather uncomfortable disease and causes much scarring.

In the past, my worst outbreak of it was under my left armpit. I have scarring so bad that in some areas I no longer have hair growth. Well, recently I've noticed I'm having more and more outbreaks on my butt (the dermatologist was clearly uncomfortable with this terminology and referred to it as my gluteal area...so formal). Hence the baring of my backside for her to see.

She gave me several prescriptions to hopefully help the problem and we also discussed my rosacea. I have it pretty bad and it doesn't help that I drink hot coffee most days or that I go walking in the wind and get windburn, etc.

I'm doing a flurry of doctor's appointments, mostly because my insurance coverage allows me to self-refer this year. It feels very freeing. Although I think I'm keeping Wahlgreen's in business.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

yipes! hope you feel better soon!

Aravis said...

What a fun way to start the day. I hope it helped, though. :0)