My poor mom
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My poor mom
My mom had some kind of redness on her nose. She went to the dermatologist about it. They gave her some stuff to put on it. She said that if it turned red than it was either cancerous or precancerous. It did turn red. Very red. and now it's sort of scabby. It looks awful and she says it hurts. My brother and I saw her on Sunday and told her that it just didn't look right. Like it shouldn't be that bad and told her to call the dr. on Monday. She did. IT sounds like they just blew her off.
It looks so bad that she doesn't even want to leave the house. She feels really tired too. I guess the cream that she puts on it is like a chemo. She had breast cancer years ago and went thru Chemo Therapy. She says she feels like she is going thru it again. She's so run down and tired and all she wants to do is sleep. Her face looks so bad I feel so sorry for her.
She spoke to my sister on the phone this morning. I guess she was just crying and telling my sister how she feels. My sister lives 4 hours away so she couldn't really do anything to help my mom. My sister called my brother and had him call the dr and get my mom in to see the dr. He went in to the exam. room with her. She told the Dr. all her symptoms and how tired she felt. She just told my mom that those symptoms are "very rare" and acted like it was impossible for her to feel that way because of the medication! They did tell her to stop taking it for a while since mom is going to Florida in April and i guess they don't want the skin to be exposed to that sun. but she will have to start taking it all over again.
I'm so upset with this Dr. oh yeah. i just rememberd. they didn't even see the dr. they saw the nurse practitioner!
We are not sure if she is not feeling well because of this medication or if she is just down because of how awful her face looks. She has not left the house in a few days and I know that brings her down. We've decided to tag team and get her out of the house. Maybe go to the movies with her this weekend. It's a dark room so she won't have to worry about people staring at her face.
Has anyone ever heard of something like this?
Find a new doctor! Patti, I have seen so many doctors in the last 10-12 years for my health issues, and I have learned the hard way - when you get blown off, when they talk down to you, when they don't believe you, or don't take you seriously - it's time to find another doctor!
YOU pay THEM. There ARE good doctors out there.
I'm not familiar with topical treatments for cancer, so I don't know what to say about what's going on with your mom. But if she is feeling as badly as you say she is, and having this reaction to this stuff, she needs to see someone, and if the only person she can see right away is the same one, the IMO, she should INSIST they see her, and in the meantime, start looking for another doctor.
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}}} for your mom.
Well, for goodness sake, if it's possible that this sore is cancerous it needs to be tested! If it turns out to be cancerous, it needs to be removed ASAP!
DITTO KAREN- Get her to a new doctor!
Found this article on Readers Digest. Is this what she is using?
Dream Cream
I also read this article in the June 2006 issue of Reader's Digest about skin cancer. The magazine had pics of the sores and tumors, but they are not in this article online.
What's that spot?
well i got more info from my brother. It's not cancerous, it's precancerous. And at her first appt. they checked her whole body for more of these spots.
My mom get's depressed every winter. We really think she feels the way she does because she is depressed about how she looks and because she doesn't want to leave the house.
This is what my brother IM'd me:
What the NP said is that they'd identified that sore as pre-cancerous. The chemical she's been using specifically targets cancerous and other foreign cells, which sets off a reaction in her white blood cells so her own immune system will attack those cells. it's possible there were a few cells that had developed, or were developing into cancer cells, and that's why the reaction on her face has been so strong
the severity of the attack on her face is actually a good thing, rather than a bad one
she said, the worse it is now, the better will be for her later
and that she should heal up very well
she didn't seem at all concerned, actually
other than concerned about mom feeling depressed
Now that I know more, I feel a little better. We just need to get her out of the house and get her feeling happier. That's how my mom is, she just hears the bad and not the 'good'. So she only told me the bad. I"m SO GLAD my brother went with her.
Lisa, I think that may be the cream she is taking. She did say that it was also used for genital warts.
I'm glad you feel better about it Bellajoe, but I don't. What is the "cream" stuff. Why didn't they do a biopsy. Why are they not removing these pre-cancerous cells. If this is a skin cancer, that is, Melanoma, that is a particularly vicious form of cancer and spreads easily and quickly.
At the very least, your brother should check with her primary care physician to see if s/he received a report about this, and how s/he feels about it - and I would strongly suggest a second opinion.
It's almost as though the NP is using the results of the treatment with the cream as a diagnostic tool. I reread the Reader's Digest article, and the lady who is the subject of the article was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma only after a biopsy. Basal cell is what the cream is used for, but only in the mildest of cases.
While I am glad that you got more information, it doesn't seem to me that the NP is handling the diagnosis porperly. Your mother has the right to insist on further tests. Please urge her to do so.
Patti, I sure hope your mom is feeling better, soon. I will keep her in my prayers. The fact that all of you care so much and are making efforts to get her out of the house is so great. I stuggle with the winter blues, and I believe it can do some strange things to our state of minds! She may dread going out, but once there, I hope she'll feel uplifted. Is she able to get outdoors much where she lives? I read that people who are sensitive to lack of light benefit greatly from getting outdoors, even twenty minutes a day. The morning light is especially good. She probably knows all this, I guess I just feel so badly for her. She's lucky to have such a caring daughter.:-)
Thank you Nikki. Yes, she definitely has the winter blues on top of this whole skin problem.
She usually does go out. She visits nursing homes with her church group, and excercises at Fitworks. But it's still dreary and colorless here. You know we've got snow on the ground, and grey skies, and no leaves on the trees. It's all so black and white, not pretty at all.
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