New Year Another New Doctor (or Getting Ready To Get Some Stitches)

I am not a fan of changing doctors. I like having a medical team that knows me and understands whatever issues I’m going through. I’m a medical weirdo so it can take a while to update a new doctor on my current situation and I’d rather avoid doing that. I’ve been lucky that many of the doctors I see on a regular or semi-regular basis are doctors that I have had for years, but occasionally I have to switch doctors for one reason or another.

I mentioned that my body is starting to show signs of stress. Some of the stress was showing up as odd bumps on the back of my neck that I didn’t know what they were. I tried not to freak out about them, but they weren’t getting smaller and they were sore so I knew I needed to make an appointment to see my dermatologist. Unfortunately, this time of year seems to be very popular with all dermatologists and the doctor I have been working with for a while wasn’t available for at least a month. I didn’t want to wait that long, so I asked if I could see a new doctor and I was able to get an appointment for earlier this week.

By the time I had my appointment, the bumps on my neck were almost gone. But I still wanted to get them checked out along with a few other skin issues I wanted to ask about. I don’t like to stack up medical issues, but this time that’s just what happened naturally.

Fortunately, the bumps I had on the back of my neck were nothing bad. It was more to do with my hair follicles than my skin and I got a recommendation for a new soap I could use that would help prevent them and make them go away if they return. I also asked if my recent hair loss in the spot that I had the bumps was related, but they weren’t. I just happened to have a bald spot in the same spot and that may have been the reason I noticed the bumps. If they had been covered by my hair, while I might have still had a bit of pain I wouldn’t have noticed them or realized they were bumps instead of a bruise.

And since I was seeing a new dermatologist, I also wanted to ask about the wart that I’ve had for over a decade. My last dermatologist considered doing a biopsy because she questioned if it could be a wart (typically even without treatment they will go away within 6 months), but it got postponed and I honestly forgot to do a follow-up to schedule it. I haven’t done anything to treat it recently and it’s been bothering me just as much as it always has.

This new dermatologist had the same hesitation as the last one about whether or not I have a wart on my face, but he didn’t hesitate on what we should do. He suggested that I come back for an in-office surgical removal. This is what I had discussed with a plastic surgeon a long time ago and that doctor made it seem like it would be a very difficult process with a very horrible scar. I didn’t want to disfigure my face, so I didn’t pursue the surgery with the plastic surgeon further.

And my last dermatologist never felt like it was the right option to take. I don’t know why I didn’t push the issue further and see what she felt would help this go away since all the treatments she had been trying had failed, but I know what hasn’t worked for over a decade. And while there are a few other options that I know I could ask to try, I also know the success rate of those other options are usually under 50% and most of them are painful.

This surgery is super minor and will be done with just a numbing shot. I will have stitches in my chin for about a week before they are removed and I will have a scar. The scar might be very obvious at first, but the dermatologist feels like it should be faded within 6 months and it will be easy to cover with makeup. And even with having a scar there, it will be less noticeable than what I have now. But to me, it’s not about how I will look. This wart has been painful for years and I want that pain gone.

I know it sounds like a rash decision and that I’m just hurrying things along. But this is something I have considered for a very long time and every doctor I have brought it up to has hesitated and told me that they didn’t feel this was a good option. This doctor was very confident in being able to make it work and to make the scar as small as possible. And for me it is so important to work with doctors who feel confident. I don’t always need my doctors to have all the answers, but they need to be confident in what they say even if they are saying they don’t know the answer at the moment. And I like the confidence of this doctor and I am ready to take the leap and finally get rid of something that has bothered me for years!

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