I’ve been going to my dermatologist regularly for a while now. Originally, it was for my autoimmune condition and seeing how to get things into remission. And while I was there I did bring up a few other concerns and questions I had. Most were able to be resolved quickly, but a few others have become things that are recurring issues that I work on each time I see my doctor. And when I saw my dermatologist earlier this week, working on the ongoing issues is exactly what I was there for.
We first went over my autoimmune condition. Things are still better than they were before we started working on it, but they aren’t as good as when I was on the other medication that I had to stop. But any improvement is a good thing for me and I am happy seeing that things aren’t as bad as they were when I was at the worst. I still hope that things will keep getting better, and that’s exactly what my doctor and I are working on.
This part of my appointment was easy. The only change we are making is increasing the medication that I’m currently taking to try to put me into remission. I was taking it twice a day before, and now I’m going to be taking it three times a day. This medication is easier on my body, so I’m not too worried about adding another dose. I do have to eat when I take it, so this will also force me to remember to eat lunch. So I guess that’s a good thing too.
And the other ongoing issue I’ve been working on with my dermatologist is a very stubborn wart I have on the bottom of my foot. This time, we know for sure that’s what it is (unlike the one I had on my face that turned out to be a benign tumor). And it can be tough to treat and have it disappear. But one of the reasons I see my dermatologist as often as I do is to get treatments closer together and not waiting months between each one. And right now, the only treatment we have been doing has been to freeze it.
Freezing a wart isn’t fun, but I seem to tolerate it better than a lot of people. I don’t get that because I seem to have a lower pain tolerance than others, but maybe I’m just used to this. Normally, I don’t feel pain while the freezing is happening, but my foot is very sore for several days after. But going into this appointment, I had mentioned how my foot was actually sore a lot longer after the last treatment. And then when my doctor started to freeze it, it was some of the worst pain I’ve felt. I was shocked at how bad it was hurting me. My doctor did take a few breaks so I could let some of the pain subside before continuing. But he had to do the maximum time to hopefully make this treatment work as well as it could.
These warts can take lots of treatments to fully go away. He thinks I might be about halfway done with the treatments it will take for me. But at the same time, he has some other concerns about my foot that he thinks might be preventing the freezing from working as well as it could. So he recommended a few products I could get over the counter that might help my foot in general and maybe make the treatments more effective in the future. But he also wants me to see a podiatrist to make sure there isn’t another issue with my foot causing me this much pain now and making the treatment process take so long.
This might be nothing or there might be something I need to do so that this wart will finally be gone. I’d rather get checked out by a specialist and find out it’s nothing than waste time when there’s no way the current plan will work. So my dermatologist put in a referral for me so I can schedule that appointment. And my next appointment with my dermatologist is a bit further away than normal to give me time to get in to see the podiatrist and work on a plan with them.
It is frustrating that this process has taken as long as it has, but I also know that if I wasn’t in the middle of it I would just be doing this all later. So I just have to keep seeing my doctor and going through this and hopefully it will be in my past soon.
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