Chapter 41: The Dermatologist Visit

Welcome back all,

So this post is, I believe anyway, one of the more “intriguing” ones I would have to say. I’m not sure if I previously mentioned but the Megace, progesterone medication, I was on the past few months did it’s job overall. However, not without some unfortunate side effects that went along with it. For those of you who have been on this medication, well you know what i'm talking about. For those of you who have not, well let me try to break it down for you. I did mention in a previous post about this super intense medication, but I will certainly try my best to explain again.

So the medication called Megace is often prescribed to women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Mind you, I was not obviously, but clearly I wasn't too far off. Seeing as I was still in the "cancer family" unfortunately. So this medication formally known as Magestol Acetate, is certainly not a medication to be taken lightly by any means, seeing as what it can do to the human body. However, seeing as it's still being used, seems for most, the benefits outweigh the cons. When I googled this medication the following information came up for side effects:

"Common side effects of Megace include:  weight gain, changes in appetite, stomach upset, diarrhea, gas, skin rash, trouble sleeping (insomnia), weakness, decreased sexual ability/desire, impotence, trouble having an orgasm, or fever. Women may experience changes in menstrual periods, including unpredictable vaginal bleeding."......."Megace may interact with insulin or oral diabetes medicine and may decrease the effects of these medications, and blood sugar levels may increase. If you have diabetes, monitor blood sugar and talk to your doctor if you notice unusual changes. Megace may interact with indinavir, or insulin or oral diabetes medications. Tell your doctor all medications and supplements you use. Megace must not be used during pregnancy. It may cause harm to a fetus. Women of childbearing age should use birth control while using this medication. This medication may pass into breast milk and could have undesirable effects on a nursing infant. Breast-feeding is not recommended while using this drug." Thank you RXLIST.COM 

FUN! yep thats awesome now isn't it! Not that it means anything to anyone, but personally I do find it funny that it says you will either have trouble having an orgasm or a fever, not both though. I bet you there's millions of women out there (pre covid of corse) walkin around with a thermometer stuck in their mouths hoping for even a little fever to break if you know what I mean. 😂 If i'm completely honest, I had almost all of those. Well except the weight gain, and the impotence. I think If I had that, I might have much bigger issues than not getting pregnant because of cancer, if you catch my drift..... for those of you who don't? well take a second, google it and get back to me. I'll just leave it at that.

Nevertheless, maybe not the best thing, but I didn't google the side effects until after I stopped the medication. To be honest everything was such a whirlwind, that I didn't even know which end of my bed my head goes on, let alone look into that. However being in the "thick of it" certainly gave me a lot more than what I bargained for. Seems as though my skin began to break out in rashes, and I had no idea why...🤷 At this point it was pretty much trial and error. I "went" to my GP, aka my family doctor and told him what was up. Side note I obviously use the term "went" very loosely, seeing as this was still in the thick of the COVID 19 pandemic and realistically ain't nobody going anywhere. Anyway, so I reached out to my GP and from the pictures he saw, he believed the rashes were possibly related to all the workouts I had been doing.

He then prescribed me some creams etc, without going into too much detail. Although im sure you would all love to know. No word of a lie 4-6 weeks later the bast*rds were still there. INFACT they were more pissed off than when they first showed up. At this point, despite all of the creams and "home remedies" I had been trying to concoct for myself, seemed this sh*t wasn't going anywhere. So, I may or may not have had a few, ok maybe a lot of mental breakdowns related to this topic. Seeing as I felt like I had the freakin plague and didn't really know what was happening to me. I didn't want anyone to come within 12 feet of me, or Lort forbid actually touch me, in fear they may see what's happening with my skin or even contract it. 

I asked my GP to send me to a dermatologist to hopefully get a bit better insight of what was actually happening to me. When I went to see her, well I was probably better off just saving the gas money and staying home. While searching around with Dr. Google to what picture seemed to be the most similar looking to whatever evil demon rash decided to take over a good chunk of my upper body and torso by this point. Personally to me it looked like Eczema, but what do I know other than it hurts like hell and its been going on for months now.

The first dermatologist I saw, yes I said first. She obviously had somewhere else to be, as me being in her presence was clearly an inconvenience on every level. She spoke so fast and her tone was every level of irritated you could imagine, that even I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I guess its fair to assume that when she walked in the room and saw I wasn't a Kardashian, or Darcy from 90 day fiancé fame she knew she wasn't going to get any money out of me so I wasn't worth her time. Personally, i've never been one for plastic surgery, not my thing. Needles freak me out, and knowing my luck I would have an allergic reaction to botox and end up looking like this:

Thanks Kourtney K for this amazing example of why I will not be doing botox....

Any hooo. So the dermatologist gave me a few more creams and some pills to take and sent me on my not so merry way. In theory it was supposed to clear up in no more than 6 weeks, in theory. Skip to 2 months later of me apply this white crap to my skin at least twice if not three times a day and the fu*ker is still going strong. WTF! Im over it, SO FRIGGIN OVER IT! In the mist of all of the cancer crap that was happening, I didn't in no way, want to be touched by anyone. I wore long sleeves all the time and long sleeved shirts and pants to bed every night. In worries that I may give my husband whatever sadistic bullsh*t decided to overtake whatever good skin I had left.

Finally the time had come. I was so beyond over it, I cannot even begin to express into words my destain. I once again went back to my GP and asked for another referral to ANOTHER dermatologist. Hopefully the one I was gonna visit this time would know what the h3ll this sh*t is all over me. I eventually got an appointment and went to see her. Im happy to say it was a different lady than the last. After waiting quite a while, big surprise I know. I feel like 98% of this whole blog is about me b*tching about how long and how often I have to wait for all of these people. I feel like being patient and waiting for a doctor in a waiting room without having a mental breakdown should be an olympic sport. Which certainly by this point I would have a freaking gold medal in waiting for health care professionals.

I was then brought to the exam room, aka the second waiting room. Eventually the dermatologist made and appearance. She was a bit older, but very pleasant and asked me why I was there. I showed her what was happening to my skin and immediately she replied "oh you have eczema". Wait what?! just that simple? are you sure?!, my GP and the other dermatologist said something else. "No no, for sure thats eczema" she responded. Much to my relief, I was still very confused. I then proceeded to bring out, what felt to be a moderately sized duffel bag of pills and creams I had been using for approximately the past 6 months. "OH NO! stop taking those pills, stop taking them immediately. You do not need these at all, they can really do some harm." WELL WTF, I thought to myself.

We then began to talk a little bit about the causes of eczema and treatments as well. While we were talking she was typing on her computer, which unfortunately ive come to accept from the professionals ive been dealing with up until this point. I then proceeded to ask her if stress was a contributing factor in  eczema flareups. Seeing as ive never had it before, there was certainly much to learn. "Oh most definitely, have you been under a lot of stress lately?" she replied, while continuing to type and only looking at her computer screen. "umm, yeah actually. I was diagnosed with Endometrial cancer a few months ago and thats been pretty stressful". Immediately she stopped dead in her tracks, and started at her screen for almost 5 seconds. She then turned to me and asked how I was doing, and if I had started any treatment. 

Me being the candid one that I am, began to tell her a brief synopsis of what ive been through over the past few months or so. I could tell she was genuinely invested based on the questions she was asking me. However something seemed to be a bit off, but I couldn't seem to put my finger on it. I then proceed to tell her that despite all the happenings to me up until this point, my husband and I, mainly me, were hopeful to still have  a family. She then began to question if that was the route I really was willing to risk, due to my cancer diagnosis. To which I naturally responded, "I want to know at the end of the day, when I lay my head on my pillow at night, that I have tried literally everything I could to have a family of our own." 

She then paused, nodded her head, and went back to typing on her computer. As if she knew no matter what she said to me at this point would ever change my mind. She finished up what she had to do and gave me some suggestions of creams I could use, and went on her merry way.

BUT........

Heres the most interesting part of this whole story.

She left the room but the door was still partially open. I was grabbing my stuff together so I could leave as well. Then out of nowhere, she came back into the room and said "you know, you should do yourself a favour and just have the surgery" and immediately left the room. Wait WHAT!? HUH!? what just happened?!? In no way did I even talk about having any surgery for her to even mention that. It was very werid, at first immediately I became furiously angry thinking who is this woman and how dare she have the audacity to even say something like that to me.

However, it was not until as few hours later, that I realized what actually happened there. I believe it was either 1 of 2 things that happened.

1. She has had the same/similar experience, or knows someone who has gone through the same thing, and is trying to spare me the heartbreak.

OR

2. It wasn't her telling me, it was someone else who was trying to get the message to me through her. Im not sure who that person may be, like a spirit who has passed already. Yes I am a firm believer in that stuff.

I truly believe there is no coincidences in life, everything has a purpose and happens for a reason. That being said. Of corse this is not where this story ends, until next week fam.

See you all next Monday.

*please note I do not own, nor I have created any of the photos or memes posted in this blog posting.