Thursday, September 02, 2004
Skin
My sister has red dots all over her body. Not from fleas or some creepy crawlies that were biting her, but a skin thing called psoriasis (and not the normal kind, either). It can be brought on by stress. She's having light treatments and taking tar baths.
Andi's got painful blisters on her calf: "I was half afraid I had something out an urban legend--you know, flesh-eating bacteria or some such." Nope--it's 'infective dermatitus.' Also can be induced by stress.
Me? I've got white spots on my shoulders and neck. Loss of pigmentation, almost like super-sized freckles, but not so cute. They don't hurt or itch and if they're multiplying, they're doing it at a snail's pace, thankfully. I noticed them after I'd been to the beach two months ago, though I had put sunscreen on and hadn't gotten sunburnt.
Hearing the Epidermal Enigmas of my loved ones sent me a-searching for an answer to my own. And since I don't really have any stress in my life right now, I knew that their culprit probably wasn't mine.
I consulted the pharmacist at the nearby mall, who thought it could be fungal and suggested over-the-counter tablets and/or lotion (virtually everything is over-the-counter here). I didn't want to jump to any conclusions so fast, so I went a-Googlin'. I read a description of something that was two long words (the first started with a T, the second with a V), but I've forgotten what it was now. It sounded plausible: brought on especially in young adults and especially in tropical climates...So I copied and pasted it to My Mom The Nurse, who told me not to self-diagnosis. (Though she was doing the same when it came to my sister's dots!)
So I headed to a clinic today.
This was my third visit to a clinic in Malaysia. The first: when Erika and I took a tumble on some jagged rocks hidden underwater in Penang and needed to get cleaned/bandaged. The second: when I got an infection near my nose ring that kept getting uglier and uglier and grew so much that it threatened to engulf my whole nose.
Both times I was amazed at the clinic experience: go in, register, want a bit, see a doctor, get some medicine, pay less than $25 US, get better. The consultation fee is only about $5 or 6 US, as compared to the outrageous prices for barely stepping foot into a doctor's office in the States. The rest was for medicine.
This time, too, it was that simple. (Well, the getting better part remains to be seen.)
Like Andi's account of her diagnosis: "All well and good...except that he didn't do any tests. Nothing. Now, I'm no skin doctor, but I am neurotic. Where were the swabs? The microscopes? The lab coats and the blood tests and the skin patches? Even the natural doc had a microscope!"
My doctor used a magnifying glass, at least.
And he was just the second opinion, anyway!
My sister has red dots all over her body. Not from fleas or some creepy crawlies that were biting her, but a skin thing called psoriasis (and not the normal kind, either). It can be brought on by stress. She's having light treatments and taking tar baths.
Andi's got painful blisters on her calf: "I was half afraid I had something out an urban legend--you know, flesh-eating bacteria or some such." Nope--it's 'infective dermatitus.' Also can be induced by stress.
Me? I've got white spots on my shoulders and neck. Loss of pigmentation, almost like super-sized freckles, but not so cute. They don't hurt or itch and if they're multiplying, they're doing it at a snail's pace, thankfully. I noticed them after I'd been to the beach two months ago, though I had put sunscreen on and hadn't gotten sunburnt.
Hearing the Epidermal Enigmas of my loved ones sent me a-searching for an answer to my own. And since I don't really have any stress in my life right now, I knew that their culprit probably wasn't mine.
I consulted the pharmacist at the nearby mall, who thought it could be fungal and suggested over-the-counter tablets and/or lotion (virtually everything is over-the-counter here). I didn't want to jump to any conclusions so fast, so I went a-Googlin'. I read a description of something that was two long words (the first started with a T, the second with a V), but I've forgotten what it was now. It sounded plausible: brought on especially in young adults and especially in tropical climates...So I copied and pasted it to My Mom The Nurse, who told me not to self-diagnosis. (Though she was doing the same when it came to my sister's dots!)
So I headed to a clinic today.
This was my third visit to a clinic in Malaysia. The first: when Erika and I took a tumble on some jagged rocks hidden underwater in Penang and needed to get cleaned/bandaged. The second: when I got an infection near my nose ring that kept getting uglier and uglier and grew so much that it threatened to engulf my whole nose.
Both times I was amazed at the clinic experience: go in, register, want a bit, see a doctor, get some medicine, pay less than $25 US, get better. The consultation fee is only about $5 or 6 US, as compared to the outrageous prices for barely stepping foot into a doctor's office in the States. The rest was for medicine.
This time, too, it was that simple. (Well, the getting better part remains to be seen.)
Like Andi's account of her diagnosis: "All well and good...except that he didn't do any tests. Nothing. Now, I'm no skin doctor, but I am neurotic. Where were the swabs? The microscopes? The lab coats and the blood tests and the skin patches? Even the natural doc had a microscope!"
My doctor used a magnifying glass, at least.
And he was just the second opinion, anyway!
