Skin Song: Day 2

This is a really boring post, unless you're into medical crap.

I went to the Dermatology folks at Oregon Health Science Unit in Portland yesterday.  They spend 2 hours taking medical history, asking questions about my life style and health-care habits, and eventually got down to the Nitty Gritty; putting the patches on my back to check for allergies.

So far, nobody has made any statements about what they think may be cause of the skin peeling off of my fingers.  Well .. nothing new.  Over the past four years, various medicos have suggested, and failed to support, their theories of stress, fungus, yatta yatta yatta.  That's their way of saying they have NO idea.  Now they're working on the theory that I've acquired an allergy to some substance.  I didn't believe it then, I don't believe it now, and if they find the cause as a result of this "Patch Test" (and if it leads to a successful treatment) I will be thrilled to admit that I was wrong ... as long as the skin quits rotting away, and my hands quit bleeding.

I mentioned before that they were going to do about 150 patch tests?  The technician corrected me, saying that they were going to do "only" about 115.  But when she finished applying the patches, she noticed that she had room for more, so we said "WHAT THE HELL?" and she found some more substances to test for.

Then she covered my entire back with tape, to make sure the patch-arrays (there are 8 substances in each array) wouldn't rub off in my sleep.

The common comment from other people who have been tested is "it feels like my back is covered in cardboard".  They're right.

There was a movie called "The Tingler" starring Vincent Price;  aliens affixed themselves to human spinal columns and controlled them.  Now I think I know how they might have felt .. the humans, not the Tinglers.

Tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday, June 20) I make the 80 mile drive back to Portland to get the first evaluation.  They take the patch arrays off, and see if there's any reaction to any of the substances.   I don't expect them to find much, because nothing is even tingling, let along itching.

I'm very much looking forward to the event, because they have all of this tape and plastic plates affixed to my skin with glue.  Think of it as having extensive very-sticky bandages covering 100% of the skin on my back.   Are they going to go to the slow, excruciatingly painful method of removing the tape?   Or will they use the fast, excruciatingly painful method?    I'm sure that, in the future, when I'm feeling bored, I can look back on that event to remind myself that boredom is not always the worst thing that can happen.

Well, it IS something to look forward too.

I had asked the technician to take pictures, so I can see what my back looks like.  I told her I wanted to put the pictures on my blog.

Bad idea.  I have an ugly back, and the pictures do not flatter.  Maybe I'll edit them down to smaller photos of the details, in case anyone is that much interested.    But I won't do it tonite.

I'll be getting to bed soon, so I can be rested and make it to my 3pm appointment tomorrow.

What a life, eh?  When the most interesting thing I have to talk about is getting tape ripped off my back.