Medicine 6 - from head to foot

I think my wife might actually be proud of me today, although she'll probably be very surprised as well. I actually made an appointment to see the doctor without being on my deathbed. Well, actually I made the appointment late last night on Kaiser's wonderful web site that allows you to make appointments in the middle of the night. And the appointment was for today. That's about as responsive as you can hope for.

I arrived exactly on time and waited less than 10 minutes before the nurse invited me in, checked my weight and blood pressure (the latter being 136/80 which is wonderful for me) and began entering my complaints into the computer that Kaiser has in every examining room. And I marveled at how wonderful it is that they have the last 20 years of my medical history available to the doctor and nurses. After I had ticked off a list of 8 or 9 reasons why I was coming to see the doctor, the nurse chuckled. "Lots of men are like that," she said.

I kind of went from head to toe by first complaining about a persistent "head cold and cough" that I have had for several weeks now. I rarely get a cold so I'm not even sure this is a cold or the dreaded Sacramento allergy season we've heard so much about. But, in any case I described my cough, my runny nose, my hearing loss (so there, Tiffany!), the spots I seem to be growing more of all over my body, and the especially intriguing spot on my left foot.

When the doctor came in he wanted the same run down of reasons for my visit even though they were on the screen right there in front of him. Maybe he was checking my memory. If so, he got a false impression because I read him the same list I read to the nurse - from my PDA. I considered just handing him the device but thought I might be able to make myself sound more miserable by reading the list.

I've found that there are two kinds of doctors - those that have an answer for everything and those that have a prescription for everything. My doctor is usually the latter. So of course I got a prescription for Amoxicillin for the persistent cough/runny nose in case it is caused by germs and a prescription for Flonase in case it is caused by allergies. In either case my symptoms should be gone within three weeks or I need to come back and he'll start adjusting my other medications.

He also made a referral for me to Kaiser's audiology clinic after checking to see that I didn't have a physical blockage in my ears.


Finally, my foot. The good doctor took one quick look at it before diagnosing Schamberg's Disease.

According to The Skin Site --

I. Definition: Schamberg's disease, or progressive pigmented purpuric dermatitis, is a chronic discoloration of the skin which usually affects the legs and often spreads slowly. This disease is more common in males and may occur at any age from childhood onward.

II. Cause: People who develop Schamberg's disease have leaky blood vessel walls which allow red blood cells to slip through into the skin. The red cells in the skin then fall apart and release their iron which has a rust color. This accounts for the orange tint of the rash.

III. Treatment: There is no permanent cure for Schamberg's disease; however, the itching can be controlled by a cortisone cream.

So I can stop worrying about cancer of the foot and look forward to ever more spots. I can be the Spotty Man!