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Journal janeowit's Journal: Birthmarks etc. 13

Journal by janeowit

Last week I got tested for tuberculosis for the third time in thirteen months. I still don't have it. This time I did react a little to the injection, which scared me into thinking I had it. Until I realized that minor redness around the injection site is not a creepy pustule. But anyways, it got me staring at my arm for long periods of time. So I thought I'd tell you about a few of the things on my arms that aren't caused by type IV hypersensivity reactions.

I am blessed with that really great skin that's so pale it's almost see through- that I swear is making a comeback, Marcia Cross anyone? On the inside of my left forearm, one-third of the way from my elbow there is a solitary freckle perfectly aligned over the bright blue median anti-brachial vein. I love that freckle.

There are two cutaneous places of interest on my right arm. Unlike the smooth transition from pale to paler as you move from elbow to shoulder on my right arm, you can actually see the exact place where it changes color on my left arm. You can follow the border between cells with melanin A and cells with melanin B. And I guarantee you this is not a farmer tan. Year round there is this line around my arm that is a fractal in its complexity.

Two inches below my right elbow is a small colorless growth with a story. I read a poster a dermatologist's office when I was 13 or so, and I determined that this mole on my arm was cancerous. And the only solution was to remove it, so sliced the whole thing off with a utility knife. This isn't the only time I attempted self-surgery, I once tried to remove a wart on my fingertip because I couldn't bear the whole freezing process again. I probably got 3 mm in and still hadn't gotten under it, so I gave up. But that's another story. Actually that was the other story. Anyways, back to the wart, it grew back, much to my disappointment. And I asked my doctor if that was normal for moles to grow back, and he said sometimes they do, and he removed it "professionally". It did grow back, but now it is the same color of my skin.

And that, my friends, is more than you needed and/or wanted to know.

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Birthmarks etc. More

Birthmarks etc.

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  • I was just telling Brett the other day that you are a fan of self surgery. Ew. And check your email. And write me back!
    • I once twisted off a small mole with my fingers over the course of 2 months. It only bled a little and never grew back. But I draw the line at using actual sharp-ish objects. That's a sure way to lose a finger.
    • Let him know if he ever needs any light surgery, I am the girl to go to.
  • You could be a chimera [wikipedia.org]. Yeah I am obsessed with chimerism.
    • Have you seen the CSI episode? It's in my top 5 favorite CSI episodes.
    • Holy crap mother so am I!

      I once watched this show on Discovery Health (back when I had satellite...sob) about this woman who was going through this really nasty divorce, and they did maternity testing on her kids. And the tests showed that the two kids weren't hers and every one was confused. Thankfully, the woman was pregnant, so they waited until she gave birth and tested again. And BAM- that baby they just pulled out of her wasn't genetically her's, because she was a chimera and had different dna in her

  • TB (Score:2)

    by ryanr ( 30917 ) *
    I actually had TB (or more accurately, I had been "exposed" to it, and could develop a case...) It came up because my son had the standard TB test, and they said it was borderline. So they said for that, they test the rest of the family, and if none of them show any indication, they ignore it. Then I tested sorta positive, too.

    So we had to take pills every day for about nine months, and then we were supposedly TB-proof for 10 years, which I think has expired now.

    But yeah, that's a lot of info about your
    • If it came up positive for us, we have to get a chest x-ray to confirm it because the skin test can give false positives. And I am not sure what happens if you have TB... maybe you get kicked out of school or something?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ryanr ( 30917 ) *
        They x-rayed us, found nothing. (Which means, if we had it, we weren't contagious through the normal air contact.) They decided they should give us the pills, just in case. There didn't seem to be any consequence, except I probably can't ever give blood.

        If they find that you have active, coughing up blood TB, I believe you go straight to quarantine.

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