{"id":92105,"date":"2012-07-06T04:21:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T08:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/92105\/it-cancer\/"},"modified":"2012-07-06T04:21:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T08:21:23","slug":"it-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/92105\/it-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"IS IT… CANCER?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Until today, I had not\u00a0 seen a doctor in over three years.\u00a0 I suppose that\u2019s a good thing; I haven\u2019t had any urgent medical needs in that time.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean I\u2019m all that well.\u00a0 I\u2019m 50 pounds overweight.\u00a0 I get winded easily. I\u2019m in my 40\u2019s. Most significantly, I have lots of skin problems.<\/p>\n

I have both sobhoerric dermatitis and psoriasis.\u00a0 In fact, my psoriasis, for the last 15 years or so, has been somewhat of a bellweather for me as it pertains to my personal wellbeing.\u00a0 See, although psoriasis is a mysterious disease with no definitive cause and no real cure, it is generally accepted by the medical community that mental conditions like stress can aggrevate the symptoms of the disease.\u00a0 When you\u2019re not right in your head, you\u2019re not right on your skin.<\/p>\n

Multiple examples of this exist in my own personal history.\u00a0 For example, when I left my ex-wife, my psoriasis got a lot better.\u00a0 My legs and arms which had been covered in plaque psoriasis miraculously got a lot better when I divorced myself, literally, from a stressful situation.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, I was able to justify a prescription for medical marijuana because it eased my stress, and therefore, my psoriasis. I don\u2019t smoke pot any more, and I don\u2018t think that makes me any more stressed out.\u00a0 In fact, I think that weed is a temporary fix for anxiety, but as it demotivates and suppresses DOING things in life, I think it ultimately leads to conditions that INCREASE stress.<\/p>\n

In the last year or so, my psoriasis has gotten a lot worse.\u00a0 Here is my skin telling me what my conscious mind tries hard to deny: something ain\u2019t quite right in my life. As for what that is, I\u2019ll deal with in future blogging; this blog is a rant about doctors.<\/p>\n

\"\"I HAVE AN ANGRY MOLE<\/strong> (I NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE ALLCAPS.\u00a0 MY \u201cSHIFT\u201d BUTTON IS HAS JUST NOW STUCK ON MY KEYBOARD, AND I CAN\u2019T GET IT UNSTUCK).\u00a0 IT\u2019S A MOLE I\u2019VE HAD MY WHOLE LIFE, AND IT WAS JUST AN ORDINARY MOLE ON MY TEMPLE.\u00a0 ABOUT A YEAR AGO, IT STARTED GROWING.\u00a0 UNFORTUNATELY, IT\u2019S RIGHT IN A SPOT WHERE IT IS PRONE TO GETTING HIT BY MY EYEGLASSES WHEN I PUT THEM ON.\u00a0 IN THE LAST COUPLE MONTHS, THIS MOLE HAS EXPLODED AND BECOME A REAL NASTY PROBLEM.<\/p>\n

WHAT WAS JUST AN ORDINARY MOLE IS NOW 3\/4TH\u2019S OF AN INCH IN DIAMETER AND 3\/8TH\u2019S OF AN INCH DEEP.\u00a0 I LOOKED ON WEBMD FOR PICTURES OF SKIN CANCER AND MY ANGRY MOLE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THE PICTURES THEY SHOW THERE!\u00a0 OMFG!! I HAVE SKIN CANCER!!! GOTTA GO TO A DOCTOR!!!!\"\"<\/p>\n

SO TODAY I WENT.\u00a0 $45 CO-PAY JUST TO TALK TO A DOCTOR.\u00a0 WTF?\u00a0 FORTY FIVE BUCKS MAY NOT BE A LOT AS COMPARED TO THE VALUE OF MY LIFE, BUT HOW SHITTY INSURANCE IS THESE DAYS AS COMPARED TO WHAT IT WAS IN DECADES PAST IS PARY OF WHY I HAVE NOT SEEN A DOCTOR IN 3 YEARS. THINGS ARE REALLY TIGHT IN JOKOLONDOLAND THESE DAYS, AND $45 IS A WEEK\u2019S WORTH OF GROCERIES.<\/p>\n

I SPEND THIS MONEY, AND I DON\u2019T EVEN GET A DOCTOR.\u00a0 INSTEAD, I AM SEEN BY A LICENSED NURSE PRACTITIONER.\u00a0 OKAY, I\u2019M SURE LNP\u2019S ARE CAPABLE OF DEALING WITH ALL KINDS OF THINGS, BUT WHEN I\u2019M WORRYING ABOUT THE \u201cBIG C\u201d, THAT\u2019S DIFFERENT.<\/p>\n

AS IT TURNS OUT, ALL MY $45 COPAY BOUGHT ME TODAY WAS A SLIP OF PAPER TO TALK TO A DERMATOLOGIST.\u00a0 DAMMIT, I COULDA SAID THAT FROM THE BEGINNING! I AM MISTER NASTY SKIN!\u00a0 I DID NOT NEED A REFERRAL TO SEE A SPECIALIST!<\/p>\n

`I DID, AT LEAST, GET SOME CONSOLATION.\u00a0 MY LNP WAS VERY FORTHRIGHT IN EXPLAINING THAT ANY MOLE-RELATED PROBLEMS ON THE FACE AUTOMATICALLY GET REFERRED TO A DERMATOLOGIST DUE TO THE RISK OF SCARRING, SHE DID AT LEAST TELL ME THIS AFTER EXAMINING MY ANGRY MOLE:
\n
\n\u201cTHERE\u2019S NOTHING THERE THAT SCREAMS OUT MALIGNANT SKIN CANCER\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

WHHHEW\u2026 THAT\u2019S SOMETHING AT LEAST.<\/p>\n

I\u2019LL UPDATE YOU FURTHER NEXT WEEK WHEN I SEE THE DERMATOLOGIST AND FIGURE OUT IF I CAN GET MY KEYBOARD OFF CAPSLOCK.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until today, I had not\u00a0 seen a doctor in over three years.\u00a0 I suppose that\u2019s a good thing; I haven\u2019t had any urgent medical needs in that time.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean I\u2019m all that well.\u00a0 I\u2019m 50 pounds overweight.\u00a0 I get winded easily. I\u2019m in my 40\u2019s. Most significantly, I have lots of skin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}