Jeff's Medical and Dental Updates

(Copying in this text from my new "Discovering Gratitude" blog, as it is definitely applicable here also.) Feeling grateful to be getting back to regular singing at rehearsal of the church choir I am in this evening. The choir has been off for about a month, which occurs annually in July or August. The concern is I am aware, as a Parkinson's Disease patient, that the voice can be affected by PD. I've been aware previously that regular singing can be a help in this; a friend whose husband died some years ago of PD recommended to me a singing group that is dedicated to PD patients for just that purpose. Their schedule did not work for me, but I've come to realize regular rehearsals with the choir plus singing at last three Sunday mornings per month are a great alternative. So, with this month of choir off time, I have more and more been feeling my voice starting to go south, and thus my gratitude about going back to rehearsals. And I will definitely want to ...

Realized my newish skin tag is entirely red. Which was alarming, then I realized it is perfectly positioned to rub up against the collars of my undershirts, and thus get inflamed. So, I'm feeling OK to just leave it for my skin check a little later in the year with the dermatologist.

Being newly alert about health of my skin (see previous posts), and running low on my current supply of sunscreen, earlier today I emailed my dermatologist to ask for a recommendation of best brands of suncreen. That included a note that Neutrogena will be a no-go for me, as a previous use of it resulted in a bad reaction to something in the ingredients. I am currently using Bullfrog brand sunscreen, but will be happy to switch to the doctor's recommendation.

This has been a morning of temporary symptoms. Firstly, highly uncomfortable feeling in the gut AND very sharp localized pain in my right lower back. So, I was strongly thinking one of the kidney stones had finally been expelled from my right-hand kidney, and I'd have to get myself to Emergency at the nearby hospital. Then the localized pain in the lower back went away and while trying unsuccessfully to initiate a bowel movement I suddenly got a little nauseous. But nothing came up. Went to eat breakfast at usual time, but shortly after starting it, was abruptly very nauseous. Reached a sink in time and vomited. That  got me thinking food poisoning from something I ate yesterday. Then the uncomfortable feeling in the gut just went away while I was trying again to initiate a bowel movement (again unsuccessfully.) So, all in all hoping this was all related to food poisoning, but just to be safe think I'll stay home today.

Very please to learn pathology department had reported the second melanoma excision had been successful,ul at removing all the related cells. Now it's just a matter of waiting for recovery of the suture site, which seems to progressing nicely.

Returned to dermatologist today for a second melanoma excision procedure. The point being getting out any remaining melanoma cells, so this involved a larger area of skin being removed than the first procedure, and hopefully the pathology analysis of what was removed today will confirm that everything has now been removed. As this resulted in a circular wound, the doctor recommended, and performed, what she calls a "pin cushion incision" to close the wound, which will result in a small circular scar, rather than what would be a much more noticeable line scar. I wanted to display an example of this here, but oddly, when I search for "pin cushion incision" (including the quotes) I get no matching results at all. I sent email to the doctor to ask if there is some other term that might provide results. I won't see the actual incision myself until tomorrow morning, when I will be able to remove the initial bandage and dressing before I shower. UPDATE: "We...