Don't Ask Dr. Google

I really do try not to go online when I have a hangnail. You always see the worst thing. And it's scary. All of a sudden you find out you have mad cow disease only really it was just last night's pizza that someone didn't put in the fridge.

So, when my lip got split and crusty in December I didn't ask Dr. Google. I live in Michigan. It's cold. My whole body dries out and gets chapped. It's what happens here.

I asked my pulmonoloigist in February -- "What about my lip?" "It's cracked," he replied. "Vaseline."

So, it was cracked. It peeled. In April I had my gall bladder attack and was given two weeks of antibiotics from the ER. It cleared up! Yay! Must have been a little staph thing. All gone.

For three weeks. Then it was back. I thought, I'll ask the dentist at my May appointment. But first, I asked Dr. Google. Chelitis seemed to be the answer. The dentist wasn't so sure but there are loads of versions of chelitis. "Ask your primary," says he.

So, I went to the PA. "I think I have chelitis," I said, giving him the wiki printout with all the photos. He gave me a steroid cream. Use it for two, maybe three weeks. I did. It cleared up. For a few weeks.

You know where this is going. In August when I went to the read doc for my physical I said "It's time I went to a dermatologist," )he immediately agreed) which I did last week. Yup. Squamous cell carcinoma -- skin cancer of the lip, thanks to the biopsy.

Now, this part of the story is more or less a good news story. It's fine. It hadn't metastasized, it's treatable, it won't kill you. It probably was due to those years of fun in the sun with only Coppertone oil and only sunscreen (those ages between 16 and 30...) I'll start a course of radiation treatment in a week or so. All will be well. (And if I finish before Halloween, I'll have a great mask!)

A little more disconcerting is a funky thyroid ultrasound. The ENT doc suggested biopsy now or wait nine months and do another ultrasound. I'll let him know in a couple of weeks when I go back but right now I'm inclined to want to just deal with one thing at a time. Still, I'll talk with my regular guy and get his take.

It should go without saying, but I'll say it. If you have something weird, a) don't ask Dr. Google, ask a real doctor and b) do it in a reasonably timely fashion. Nine months is a long time to dally. I didn't think I was dallying, I have no problem with what anyone else told me. But I should have moved sooner and the fact that I was so darned lucky was due in no part to me. Just good luck. And c) don't forget to put sunscreen on your lips!

Life is good. My face looks a little weird but I'll take it. Trust me -- beats the alternative.

I have another essay on this subject that is a little more personal (but not TMI) called Sun Spots and Sunsets at Modern Creative Life. Check it out if you're so inclined! (The theme of this month's issue is light and shadow and there are loads of good essays there -- well worth subscribing to!)

New on "Chopsticks and String" and a Winner!

I've just posted my thoughts about a wonderful book on Chopsticks and String.

It’s surprisingly difficult to write a book “review” when the book read is so marvelous, moving and illuminating as “Kitchen Table Wisdom” by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. is.

“Everybody is a story,” Remen writes in the introduction. “When I was a child, people sat around kitchen tables and told their stories…Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way the wisdom gets passed along.”

Remen is a remarkable woman -- a physician of powerful compassion and soul; a wounded healer (she has had Crohn's disease since she was a youth), and a fabulous writer. It's one of the few books I've ever read with a packet of post-it notes tucked into the back cover. And I used a lot of them.

If you ever visit Chopsticks and String (or if you have never visited!), this is perhaps the one book "review" I hope you'd take a look at. It's worth your time to learn more about this book; it was more than worth mine.

AND -- the winner of a crystal donated by my pal Richard in honor of his school crystal project supporting the Greater Lansing food bank is Anno!

Featuring the Marmelade Gypsy as special non-partial random selector!

(It's a blessing and a curse to have a cat who likes to eat paper or chew yarn when your primary art interests are collage and knitting...)

(We had so much fun with this, there were paper bits all over the bed by the time we were done, but Anno was the first name he pulled from the basket!)