MD Anderson

My one year biopsiversary was last week. In some ways the year has flown by. In other ways, it's crawled slowly by. I need to send the thank you card to my dermatologist who did the biopsy in the first place. I've been very fortunate being diagnosed so early. I am eternally grateful to not have gotten horribly bad before figuring out what was going on.

My mom sent me an awesome biopsiversary gift. An Origami Owl necklace with symbols of me, my family, and their love in it. :-)

My thighs have been extremely itchy lately. No spots showing up, but the texture of my skin feels weird. I'm still trying to get over this sinus infection that's been going on for 3 weeks now. I went to the doctor and got antibiotics, but I'm still suffering.

Next Monday I'm going to go down to MD Anderson for a 2nd opinion from Dr. Duvic. I'm a bit nervous and a lot curious about what she's going to say. I met her at a CTCL informational session last year but didn't really get a chance to talk to her then.

I want to rip my face off.

Whenever I get out of the shower, I'm always pretty pink (isn't everyone?) Yesterday I noticed that an hour or so after my shower, my face was still pretty pink. It seemed to be really concentrated on the right half of my forehead and both my cheeks. I didn't worry about it much, figuring it would go away. Today the same thing happened, but those areas now are getting thicker, rougher, and are extremely itchy. I've also had two really small spots around my eye for about 2 months. They're right at the edge where the goggles block.

Since its Friday, I'll wait and see how it does over the weekend. I suppose I'll have to call Pandya if it gets much worse. I really hope this doesn't end up being aggressive on my face.

I had a NBUVB treatment this morning. I was feeling extremely nauseous, tired, and sensitive afterwards. I guess I'm still getting used to the increase in treatments again.

Keep on keepin on...

Itching

I've only had some itching in the past 20 years since I got my first spot. In the last month, I've been getting more and more spots. In the last week my itching has gotten pretty bad. My stomach area has gotten really bad, both with the dry flaky skin and it being itchy. I've only completed 4 phototherapy sessions, so I can't really expect things to be getting better yet, but I'm wondering how long it will take, or if the treatments will work for me at all. My wife joked that now that I know about the MF, it has gone crazy. I am so grateful that she made me go see the doctor in January. At that point, the spots weren't that bad. Occasionally my main one get really flaky and it would hurt where too much skin came off, but I could put neosporin on it and be fine. I didn't really think it was necessary to see the doctor, just bad eczema. With how bad it is now, I'm really glad I went to the doctor back in January and could already be in treatment when it got this bad. The thing is, it could still be so much worse. I am still extremely fortunate with how I am right now. I will deal with the itching, the alternative isn't acceptable.