Today I had an appointment at the dermatologist's. I was going for a routine skin cancer checkup but had a specific concern about this little white scaly thing that had been on my lip since our trip to Sao Paulo in April when we spent a week at our favorite beach and where I may or may not have regularly applied the 50 SPF lip balm that I normally use.
That little scaly thing turned out to be a keratosis from sun damage and it was removed by freezing with nitrogen.
O.U.C.H.
The doctor told me a blister would form and then heal up. I informed the doctor before the freezing that I was traveling to Washington, DC on Sunday and asked would it be healed by then. He laughed and said it would look like an awful fever blister by Sunday. Yay for me.
When I suggested that we wait until after Washington and our subsequent trip to the mountains and our subsequent trip to the beach, the doctor said we were doing it today so we could see if we needed to do it again.
I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I have to tell you that this really, really hurt. Like laser surgery was nothing compared to this. Like it better work or else I'll pick the keratosis off with my fingernails to avoid more freezing.
I kind of have an Angelina Jolie bottom lip right now. Well not really, but a girl can pretend right? Now I just wait for the ugly fever blister part to form so it'll fall off and heal up.
(On a related note, I have been studying actinic keratosis on the internet and on The Skin Cancer Foundation's webpage devoted to this diagnosis, some of the photos are provided by my doctor, who was also my father's dermatologist, and who has elevated status at the West household for his extraordinary love and devotion to the dermatological game.)
For great doctors and ridding myself of what could be a pre-cancerous growth, I am most assuredly truly thankful (even if I'm going to have a disgusting lip malfunction when I see my husband on Sunday for the the first time in 3 weeks).
Showing posts with label healthy living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy living. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
my beloved juicer
I decided that I'm under-utilizing the juice machine we bought with Christmas gift cards.
So today I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of fruit and vegetables. The intention was to cut it all up, refrigerate it and have it handy for making juice at a moment's notice. I can mix and match the fruits as the spirit moves me and make all these exotic juices. (I even looked for wheat germ in the grocery store, even though I have no idea what that looks like or is even called in Spanish) because I thought that sounded like a terribly healthy thing to add to juice.) Not that I would know this from personal experience, but all the magazines say that if you have cut-up carrots and peppers in the fridge, you'll be more apt to eat those instead of, say, a pack of Dorito's so I was thinking that if I could quickly make juice, I would drink that more readily than, say, a Coke Zero.
The first step in this whole process was to sharpen the knife that I intended to use to make fast work of my dicing and slicing. I don't ever sharpen knives but this one looked particularly dull this morning. Unfortunately, instead of making fast work of slicing and dicing fruits and veggies, I made fast work of slicing and dicing my thumb. I'm beginning to get a fat complex about the pads on my thumbs - they must be fat because they keep getting in the way of sharp objects coming through. Good news is that this is a minor cut compared to the September Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But it bled a lot and I decided I'd peel only what I needed for an immediate glass of juice.
So I just juiced together 4 oranges, 2 big carrots, 1/4 of a large papaya, and a kiwi. That made about 4 cups of juice which I drank even though it smelled vaguely of papaya which I don't like.
I feel instantly healthier with all that vitamin-enriched stuff sloshing around in my stomach. I'm also thinking that with all the orange tint I just consumed, I might even look like I've got a perma-glow.
I'm now going to cut up the rest of my fruits and vegetables since I've stanched the flow of blood. Bottoms up!
So today I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of fruit and vegetables. The intention was to cut it all up, refrigerate it and have it handy for making juice at a moment's notice. I can mix and match the fruits as the spirit moves me and make all these exotic juices. (I even looked for wheat germ in the grocery store, even though I have no idea what that looks like or is even called in Spanish) because I thought that sounded like a terribly healthy thing to add to juice.) Not that I would know this from personal experience, but all the magazines say that if you have cut-up carrots and peppers in the fridge, you'll be more apt to eat those instead of, say, a pack of Dorito's so I was thinking that if I could quickly make juice, I would drink that more readily than, say, a Coke Zero.
The first step in this whole process was to sharpen the knife that I intended to use to make fast work of my dicing and slicing. I don't ever sharpen knives but this one looked particularly dull this morning. Unfortunately, instead of making fast work of slicing and dicing fruits and veggies, I made fast work of slicing and dicing my thumb. I'm beginning to get a fat complex about the pads on my thumbs - they must be fat because they keep getting in the way of sharp objects coming through. Good news is that this is a minor cut compared to the September Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But it bled a lot and I decided I'd peel only what I needed for an immediate glass of juice.
So I just juiced together 4 oranges, 2 big carrots, 1/4 of a large papaya, and a kiwi. That made about 4 cups of juice which I drank even though it smelled vaguely of papaya which I don't like.
I feel instantly healthier with all that vitamin-enriched stuff sloshing around in my stomach. I'm also thinking that with all the orange tint I just consumed, I might even look like I've got a perma-glow.
I'm now going to cut up the rest of my fruits and vegetables since I've stanched the flow of blood. Bottoms up!
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