nagasaki's Journal

A year ago I was still on Coumadin and hadn't yet had the cardioversion that failed.  I was also still doing acupuncture.  In the end, I stopped acupuncture after 6 sessions and never returned.  While I saw the benefit, that it stopped the awful chest pain from that early month, I dreaded the pain of needles in places like my inner ankles.  I just could never get used to it.

This past month my heart has given me no issues.  This morning it stands at 103/56 BP and 79 heart rate at 6 am.  That's par for the course lately.  The knee saga continues.  A second biopsy revealed that it was indeed a fungal infection and that steroid cream actually made it worsen and spread.  So 3+ months of increasing use of steroid cream has now created a monster that will take weeks to cure.  There's even a name for it - tinea incognito.  This is when it is misidentified and steroid creams used.  It shouldn't have even required the initial biopsy to identify.  So now I've been trying to use Lamisil cream but according to the consulting doc in Dermatology at OHSU, it's gotten too deep in the pores for that.  So I'll have to do oral antifungals, which can cause liver damage.  Do you think I would have heard an I'm sorry from the second dermatologist who discovered this?  Nah.  So I'll probably have to get my liver enzymes checked before I start the medication.  And all that will have to wait till next week because they're just too busy.

But the worst part of this month is that my son and daughter got into a Huge Fight after returning from the memorial service in California.  It all spilled over onto me and now the whole family is fractured.  I've really come to realize that I can't count on their support as I grow older and more fragile.  Which is a huge adjustment to make in my mind.  And a huge practical adjustment.  Luckily, it's spring.