Something I've had on my back

Sorry to interrupt the regular silence, but I have something to tell you! Lots of things, actually, but not so much time.

For about a month or so, I was extremely ill. Before that I'd only been kind of sick for about a month or two. You see, I had something on my back.

Literally.

A year or two ago, I noticed a lump on my back. It appeared, but then didn't get any bigger, so I figured I'd ignore it. I pointed it out to the doctor who screened me at UGA before I came here, but she wasn't concerned, either. So I mostly forgot it.

Sometime in late February or early March, I noticed it was growing again. And it hurt. And it was red, and hot. I figured that wasn't good. Also, I started feeling weak and tired. After a few day of ignoring it, during which it unexpectedly (but predictably) did not get better, I went to the doctor. He asked, among other things, if I had a fever. I said I didn't think so (both I and 家寧 had been feeling my forehead for just that reason, and it seemed normal). He had the nurse check.
It was 38.4 C, which at first did not concern me, until I saw everyone's worried expressions and did the math...that's 101 F. I'd probably been running that for a while.
They started me on antibiotics.

After those ran out, I thought I was feeling a lot better, so I didn't go back.
Stupid.

After a few days, I felt like crap. I was running a fever. I went to the doctor, he was upset that I hadn't come back right away (though he'd never mentioned it and talked like I only needed the one week). He started me on another round of antibiotics.

That was on a Wednesday or Thursday, I think. Friday of that week, I started getting tiny little red dots everywhere. I ignored it at first, because I'd gotten extremely hot during the night (I was alternately freezing cold or boiling hot for almost the entire month or two), and thought they might be caused by heat. In the back of my mind, though, I worried that they might be a reaction to the antibiotic.

And I was right! I was now allergic to that particular antibiotic. I noticed that because the next day, the red spots were big, tall, and red and angry-looking. It's good to watch out when you've got spots like that, just the same as people who can be described that way. I can't remember if I ignored them one more day or not, as I intended to go back to the school doctor when he reopened; whatever the case, 家寧 persuaded me that that was a bad idea, and that we should go to the hospital right away. Unfortunately, that meant going to the emergency room.
We waited there a long time. When the dermatologist finally saw me (a specialist! not a general doctor!), she was extremely concerned, and gave me all sorts of medicine, and of course a different antibiotic. I think I was taking five different kinds of pills every day. I felt like an old man. I probably looked like one, too, as bad a shape as I was in.

The awesome part? Going to the emergency room cost me about $15 US, since I have the national insurance here.

The spots cleared up fairly soon, and my medicine ran out. I think I ran a fever again, and went back to the school doctor. He gave me more medicine. I went back to the hospital, and the dermatologist there said we should take out this cyst, or tumor, or whatever it was, but first we'd have to get rid of the infection.

Sometime later, possibly only a week, I woke up on a Monday morning. That is normal. The unusual thing, though, was that my throat hurt obscenely, and I could barely speak. I went to class anyway.

The next day was worse. I thought I had a fever again. I went to the doctor, and he said it was 38.5 C or so. Unfortunately, 家寧 had to work then, and go to her class, and I wasn't able to speak anymore. I was able to gesture and whisper, though, so the doctor and I communicated alright. They literally scraped my tonsils. Then I got more medicine.

The next day I had an appointment at the hospital with another dermatologist. 家寧 again couldn't come; we figured I'd probably be alright, as there were several things she had to do for school/work, and it was just a regular visit to the doctor. Oh, also, I still couldn't really talk, and my fever was still high.
The doctor looked at my back, then said, "show me where the tumor is". By this point it had gone down, true, but that was not what I wanted to hear from a professional. Then she said, "would you like to take it out?" I said yes.

I just didn't know she meant right then. I'd explained about having a fever and all, but I guess she wasn't worried about it.

The doctor doing the procedure worried me, too...she also asked me to point out the tumor, and spent a good five minutes poking around my back. There was a point when she said she couldn't find it. With my help, though, she finally managed, I got a local anesthetic, and then she cut me open.

That may be one of the worst ways to have surgery done. If it was a spot I could see, it wouldn't be so bad. In fact, I'd kind of enjoy it, since I'd get to see what they were doing, and how to do it. But when you're numb, and can't see what's going on, you can just vaguely feel your skin being tugged at - there is no way to know how much is being cut, how long, how deep, or how skillfully. All you can feel is the tugging your skin. Like an animal being skinned. And then there was the smell of blood - weak at first, but ever stronger. That, together with my unease over the doctor's troubles finding the thing, made me uncharacteristically nervous.

The doctor spoke with me, though, and after a while she said there was a lot of almost necrotic tissue where the infection had been. She scraped it out. After about 15-20 minutes, she finally was able to find and remove the troublesome tissue - she said it'd mostly collapsed. I even got to look at it! It was like a chunk of fat off a hunk of meat (which I suppose it was) - wiggly and white and stringy. It was about the size of a pinkie nail, attached by a string of tissue to another about half that size. She sewed me back up, and said I should come back in two weeks to have the stitches out.

I got a taxi, limped home, and immediately fell asleep. I slept at least 3-4 hours. And when I woke up, I felt better than I had in months. And the next day, my throat didn't hurt anymore! In fact, I felt almost normal!

It was great. Of course the stitches needed to come out after only one week, not two, and 家寧 wasn't willing to cut them, so I went to the school doctor. He was surprised and initially unwilling, but he helped us in the end.

Everything turned out fine - in fact, I went last Wednesday for the follow-up where they were supposed to take my stitches out, and learned that it was, in fact, a benign tumor. Hardly, of course, to make an old joke, but much better than real cancer.

I'm not sure what I enjoy most about having that thing out, besides feeling healthy again - being able to swim, or being able to lean back (and sleep on my back). It's kind of a pain not being able to properly sit in chairs for a few months.


Anyway, I wasn't feeling very well, or very energetic, for quite a while there, and that's a lot of the reason I wasn't writing. But things are better now! So much better that I'll be busy probably all the time! (I missed quite a few classes...but in better news, in the last three days, I have gone karaoke-ing, and then to the beach and some hot springs with 家寧! So I'm busy.)

So, I hope you're all well, and I'll try to keep you better informed from now on. 再見! (zai4jian4, in case you're curious, is "see you again", which, considering neither of us can "see", may not be totally appropriate, but I don't feel like thinking up an alternative right now)



P.S. - I started another blog where I don't actually write! (much) - I just post interesting links and briefly describe them. It updates a little more often since it takes almost no effort. It's here - http://thrownupon.blogspot.com/

P.P.S. - the medical system here is really pretty good. If you have to get sick, do it here! Doctors work fairly cheap, and most things are pretty modern.