Another Medical Hassle

And it’s my own fault.

Today I went to a dermatologist to have a mole that had suddenly started getting big, removed from my thigh. He said he was ‘cauterizing’ it, so I didn’t mention I was a ‘bleeder’ because of the HH. Now this was no big thing, the mole was maybe only half the size of a dime and from what I can see, he only took out a little scoop of my dermis, though considerably deeper than a cat scratch, that’s for sure.

When he was done, he put a BAND AID on it, gave me a standard ‘care’ instruction sheet (which by the way, didn’t mention BLEEDING). And I went merrily on my way.

By the time MTS Access (disabled transit - $4.50 each way) picked me up and delivered me to my curb, I was starting to feel a little pain in that thigh, and maybe a little wet. (Dumb me!).

When I got in the apartment, and went to the bathroom, I discovered I’d bled through my slacks, through the wheelchair pad, onto the seat itself. I was ticked! Slacks are hard to come by – hope I can get the stain out!

Well, I padded the ‘Band Aid’ with a wad of paper towels, as the cats needed dinner and I needed to to a blood glucose and pump some insulin, and other household things. I bled through those in about 2 hours.

Next, at the suggestion of a friend who had incidentally called, I put intermittent pressure on it with an ice pack. That helped. Still, the danged thing ‘oozed’ all night, and I kept waking up to check on the bleeding. Now I knew, logically, that I’d not bleed to death from this little scooped out area of skin, but it made me a nervous wreck, even though I took an extra xanax.

The thing that ‘gets to me’ about this kind of situation is: what do I do now??? If I called this doc, he’d just tell me to come to the office. I don’t have a car. I can’t get disabled transit back to the doc unless I schedule two days ahead of time and spend ANOTHER $9. My wheelchair is not safe enough right now, to take the public bus, even to the local Urgent Care.

And I had the annual HUD inspection looming later today. Then I am scheduled to FINALLY get my wheelchair repaired (ordered part arrived – after two months) on Friday; I have to go spend five hours out there. So just when and how would I get medical attention?

The answer is, I don’t! It will just have to ‘ooze’ and I’ll change the dressing every 4 – 6 hours, putting a thick coating of an antibiotic ointment that I happened to have on hand, on the dressing in the hopes of preventing infection and plugging up that little hole in my fat old leg.

If it’s still doing its thing on Saturday, my wheelchair will have been fixed, and I can take the bus to Urgent Care.

By the way, I will NOT be going back to THAT Dermatologist; he not only doesn’t know how to cauterize, but paid no attention to my diabetic tendency to infections.

This brings me around to ‘it is my own fault’, as I haven’t been able to get to the Hematologist for the required blood work/treatment. In fact, I am way past due. My hemoglobin & hematocrit could be sky high as far as I know (it is definitely UP, or I wouldn’t bleed like this.)

And can ANYONE out there explain this HH tendency to bleed (has NOTHING to do with Pro-Times, etc) to me?