It’s been a bit of time since my last dermatologist appointment. I was supposed to go back about a month ago, but then my doctor got sick and the appointment had to be rescheduled. Because I have to work around my work schedule, it took a bit of time before I could get another appointment. But I knew nothing in my appointment would be urgent, so I wasn’t too concerned about that. And if there was something that changed and I needed to go in quickly, I could always call back and see how soon I could go in.
My last appointment was before the surgery on my foot, so I knew that this appointment would be to see how things were going. And of course, it would be an appointment to check about my autoimmune condition and to make sure that things are going well for me.
I was able to get an early morning appointment before work, so that was a bit different from going after work. But I figured that it should be an easy appointment since I wouldn’t have to deal with any more freezing treatments on my foot. I was hoping it would be a relatively pain-free appointment, but I never know going in if there will be something unexpected.
The appointment started with going over how my foot was doing. I don’t know if my dermatologist was happy that the podiatrist decided to cut it out of my foot, but what’s done is done. I do have a little scar tissue on my foot, but it’s not that bad. Plus, there’s no guarantee that if I kept doing the freezing treatments I wouldn’t have scar tissue after that. I didn’t know how many more treatments it would have taken. And I am glad that I’m done with the treatments because I had been going through them for so long. So while this wasn’t the treatment plan my dermatologist wanted, I think he’s glad that I’m all done and my foot is fine.
Then we discussed my autoimmune condition. I’ve been taking the same medication for a while, and it is helping a lot. My dermatologist said that my skin looks the best that he’s seen it and I have a much lower stage of the condition than I did before. The ultimate goal is remission, but that’s not always possible. But these are really encouraging signs that I might be there one day.
Even if my skin wasn’t looking better, I’m in significantly less pain so that has made me happy. The pain of this condition has been one of the worst things for me, and to not be in as much pain is so nice. While I want my skin to look amazing too, the pain was a bigger concern. While I am in much less pain, I did still have one really bad flare that was causing me quite a bit of pain. I do have a few different things I can do that help with the pain and make it not as bad, but it’s not a guarantee they will work. And since I only had one really bad flare, compared to multiple ones like I had in the past, my dermatologist offered to inject the spot to help the pain and to decrease the inflammatory response.
While I was looking forward to a pain-free appointment, I was curious about this and decided to go for it. I knew it would hurt and that it still might not go away, but this was a good chance to try a treatment option for any really bad flares I might have in the future. I don’t know if it was because it was a needle or because the flare was really inflamed and already painful, but the injection hurt more than any freezing treatment hurt me. I didn’t faint, but I did black out. I think the blackout was more about the needle and not the pain, but the pain did make me tear up. I think I shocked my doctor with how much it hurt me, but he’s also always been surprised by how little the freezing treatments hurt. He also said that because this flare was so bad and the skin was already tender, it might have been worse than what others who get this injection experience.
This injection won’t necessarily make the flare go away, but it will make it much better. And just like how I’m doing overall, being in less pain is the priority for me. Of course, I would love to get into remission and I know that having surgery on some of the worst spots is the best option for me in the future, but I’m not planning on the surgery just yet. I do think I will do the surgery eventually, but it’s not in my future plans for now. I want to see how I continue to do on the medications since they are helping and getting as close to remission as possible before taking more permanent steps.
It did suck getting a shot while I was there since I was hoping I wouldn’t have anything that hurt during this appointment, but overall it was a really positive checkup. I don’t have to go back for several months, which is the longest time between appointments that I’ve had in a long time. And maybe things will be even better for me by then. I know that when I started the medications I wasn’t seeing progress even though I was told there was progress. I’m glad that I can tell things are getting better and I’m not just having to trust what my doctor is telling me. Because feeling the progress and improvement in my own body is the most important thing for me.
You Might Also Like
Another Doctor Appointment Afternoon (or Not Seeing The Results Yet)
Not What I Expected From This Appointment (or I Have Some New Accessories For Now)
Going In For A Doctor Appointment (or Making A Plan With My Dermatologist)
My First Doctor Appointment In A While (or Not Everything Can Be Done Over The Phone)
A Fast And Easy Doctor Appointment (or A Simple Follow-Up)
A Dermatologist Follow-Up (or I’m Not Always The Best Judge Of Progress)
