RSKY
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2003
- Messages
- 2,486
- Tractor
- Kioti CK20S
Had a couple places I wanted looked at so I made an appointment with a Dermatologist in a town about thirty miles away. I have/had a place on my head that scabbed over ever week or so and a large cyst on my back in the shoulder area. The cyst was the remnant of a staph infection I had about four years ago and was gradually getting larger. Couldn't see the lady doctor for six to seven weeks so I made an appointment to see a physicians assistant in the same office. This lady was about fourteen months pregnant. Kinda took me by surprise. She quickly looked at my head and said that it was nothing, just some blood vessels gathered together and bleeding every now and then. Then I had to take my shirt off and lay on my stomach. I kept trying to point out the huge cyst on my upper back but the Physicians Assistant (very pregnant) and her assistant (Physicians Assistant's Assistant ??) completely ignored it and instead starting looking at my lower back. She said, and I quote, "that has to come off!!" I said what has to come off and she said this and poked me on my lower back slightly above my waist. I have several moles on my back and my wife couldn't tell any difference in that one and any of the others. Their attitudes and facial expressions when looking at that place alarmed my wife but they quickly reverted to the happy attitude they had exhibited when they first came in the exam room. I was scheduled to come back the next week and get all three cut out. I asked who was going to do it and the (very) pregnant lady said she would. I asked her if her arms were long enough to reach me which she thought was funny.
Anyway I went back this week to get the stitches out and the reports had come back. The place on my head was just as she said, a bunch of blood vessels. The cyst was a cyst though it was about three inches long and an inch in diameter. Sure didn't feel that big, took forever to cut out. But the place I didn't know was there would have become VERY serious in about a year. Apparently they go from mild, to medium, to severe, to melanoma. Mine was between mild and medium.
And I didn't know it was there!
The physicians assistant's assistant was the one who told me this as she was taking some of the stitches out and gluing the wound together. She was laughing and cutting up with me until I asked her how long it would have taken the mole to become deadly and she choked up a little. Said a lot of people didn't get them looked at until it was too late. Wife said she teared up and stood with her head bowed as if she ware praying for just a second or two. Then went back to joking with me.
The whole point of this post is to tell you guys, and gals, to get anything suspicious checked out. And go to a specialist to do so. As the pregnant lady said "out eyes are trained to see what others do not see".
As a side note, they had me washing with Dial soap before the surgery and for two weeks after. (I hate to even call it surgery because I was laying on my stomach talking with them the entire time.) They said it was the cheapest and best soap for killing bacteria. And I had to get a tube of this antibiotic paste and smear in inside my nose every night before they cut on me and for two weeks after. She said that researchers had found that the staph infections people get in hospitals come from bacteria that live in human nostrils!!!! So the paste I am smearing in my nose is supposed to keep me from getting a staph infection on my back. Go figure.
If either of those two ladies told me to stand on my head and yodel, I would do it. They just had that air of being competent, very caring, and very concerned about my wellbeing.
And I will choose to see a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant every time before I will see a doctor. Just seems to me that they take more time and are more thorough.
RSKY
Anyway I went back this week to get the stitches out and the reports had come back. The place on my head was just as she said, a bunch of blood vessels. The cyst was a cyst though it was about three inches long and an inch in diameter. Sure didn't feel that big, took forever to cut out. But the place I didn't know was there would have become VERY serious in about a year. Apparently they go from mild, to medium, to severe, to melanoma. Mine was between mild and medium.
And I didn't know it was there!
The physicians assistant's assistant was the one who told me this as she was taking some of the stitches out and gluing the wound together. She was laughing and cutting up with me until I asked her how long it would have taken the mole to become deadly and she choked up a little. Said a lot of people didn't get them looked at until it was too late. Wife said she teared up and stood with her head bowed as if she ware praying for just a second or two. Then went back to joking with me.
The whole point of this post is to tell you guys, and gals, to get anything suspicious checked out. And go to a specialist to do so. As the pregnant lady said "out eyes are trained to see what others do not see".
As a side note, they had me washing with Dial soap before the surgery and for two weeks after. (I hate to even call it surgery because I was laying on my stomach talking with them the entire time.) They said it was the cheapest and best soap for killing bacteria. And I had to get a tube of this antibiotic paste and smear in inside my nose every night before they cut on me and for two weeks after. She said that researchers had found that the staph infections people get in hospitals come from bacteria that live in human nostrils!!!! So the paste I am smearing in my nose is supposed to keep me from getting a staph infection on my back. Go figure.
If either of those two ladies told me to stand on my head and yodel, I would do it. They just had that air of being competent, very caring, and very concerned about my wellbeing.
And I will choose to see a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant every time before I will see a doctor. Just seems to me that they take more time and are more thorough.
RSKY
) and went to work at the local VA hospital where he could focus on actually treating patients. He was very excited about being able to help vets that it was hard to be mad at him for leaving his practice. At least he did steer me towards another small town doc that I've never even met yet - I just deal with the PA. LOL!