And I did! I just did!
WARNING: if the mention of flesh + cuts makes you queasy read the psoriasis bit only bcs I just took a blade to myself, in the best possible way. Oh yes I did! I'll tell you when to stop further down.
Abt 2 months ago I started feeling something hard on top of my ear cartilage, where it joins the head. It wasn't painful for a while but it bothered me just being there. Then it started getting bigger and squishy and it became obvious it was filled with pus. So one day I disinfected the whole area and my hands and gave it a few good, determined squeezes (it was quite deep), and pus did shoot out and the pressure relief was immediate. So I cleaned and disinfected again, and thought
Now it will remain open and drain and that's the end of it.
How I sometimes manage to forget I have psoriasis even when I don't have any visible psoriasis is beyond me, truly it is.
So, to recap. I have psoriasis, have had it for 30 years (yey moi!). Psoriasis is a systemic disease and does not very pretty things to your body inside and out, and that is why I am barred -
barred! - from giving blood bcs, it stands to reason, anyone who is given blood is in dire straits and the last thing they need is blood riddled -
riddled! - with inflammatory cells, all mine, all ever-present. I entertained thought of being able to be a bonemarrow donor bcs, I was told, there was a friendly little machine that could filter the bad, bad cells and collect the good, good ones. As it turns out, all my cells are the omegas of the playground and therefore to be shunned -
shunned! - at all times. In a country where so many should give blood and do not, and where even less are bonemarrow donors, this breaks my heart in a way I cannot even appropriately convey bcs I
would, see, if I could.
Now, as far as diseases go, psoriasis is a little incompetent overachiever. Other people regenerate their cells in abt 28 days? We'll do it in 7! Sometimes 6! Sometimes 4! Hey, but what abt the cells that aren't quite dead yet? Never mind that, we'll just shove them up to the surface realllllly fast, and then they can all clump together and look reddishly half-alive in a most disconcerted way, and then we can call even more inflammation mediators - ooh, they're coming - and then the whole can look even redder! And scalier! It doesn't even look human anymore. And in the winter it will hurt like bloody hell bcs the skin barrier is broken.
And one of the - for you - hidden beauties of them is that no cut, however simple, is just that. You see, any skin wound turns into a love fest, no wound heals normally, it immediately turns into a psoriasis lesion JUST BECAUSE IT CAN. It's like cloning with a nudge. So pardon me if I am wary of thorns and claws [
just made myself snort bcs avoiding claws is so bloody easy for a vet isn't it] bcs it's begging for trouble, one single scratch can make my dormant beauty wake up, stretch and dilligently go to work, not to mention that lesions are symmetrical, so if I get one on the left a new one will arrive without fail on the right side, approximately in the same place. It would be fascinating if I weren't the most unwilling canvas. It's called the Koebner phenomenon/isomorphic response, and I share it with sufferers from e.g. lichen, warts, systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and something called
molluscum contagiosum which, frankly, always - ALWAYS - makes me think of a randy little STD-dripping lobster with an Australian accent.
Back to the cyst/abscess/something, how silly of me to think it would stay open and drain. Of course it didn't bcs while squeezing I made the surrounding skin bleed the tiniest bit and what have we learnt? Koebner ensures it all becomes covered by a thick, semi-transparent slice of - whatever it is. It doesn't look like a psoriasis lesion, just like some very aggravated something in between. Wish I had saved it, I could post a pic, wouldn't you have loved that, my pretties? The end result was that it filled up again and there was no way that the pressure would be enough for it to burst through the skin. Removing the what-have-you scab doesn't work either bcs, of course, it just builds another one even thicker and faster. In my experience, if you keep pulling it it will eventually heal WITHOUT turning into psoriasis but that has only worked with very, very small scabs bcs anything bigger hurts and could get infected so I don't even try it.
THIS IS WHERE YOU SHOULD STOP READING IF YOU'RE NOT CUT-FRIENDLY.
Abt an hour ago I had a feel again and it was bigger and absolutely filled with pus, I could actually hear the sound of the fluid swishing around. My worry was that said pus would inevitably end up going
inside rather than outside, and hallo, there's my inner ear right there, and there's my brain not too far off, and the pressure was driving me absolutely bonkers so it NEEDED TO DRAIN. All of a sudden I remembered I still had some unopened scalpel blades from when I used to dissect those poor sheep and I went hunting for one. And I found it. I cleaned the area just like they do in the hospital (hydrogen peroxide and then betadine), I washed and scrubbed and disinfected my hands and I positioned myself in front of the mirror. It's an awkward spot but was still very visible (it would, in fact, be very hard to miss it). The first tiny cut didn't hurt too much, it was more of an impression freally, but I realised that I was doing it too far below. I pricked the top and WHAT A RELIEF! This thickish chord of pus trickled down immediately, and I had my hydrogen peroxide-gauze ready to help it along with some gentle pressure (I also covered my ear, no worries). When it slowed down I enlarged the cut and some more pus came out. And then I disinfected the whole thing again, and applied a plaster over it so the betadine-soaked gauze ball could work its magic some more, and I am hopeful that, bcs it's a deeper, larger cut it will not close again and that this will be the end of it. Also, I will be bathing it in salt water regularly for the next week/fortnight. And finally, I will be going to the beach with Shrimpy's Tweedle equivalent who became my friend as well, and she too is a Dr. How practical! How terribly clever of me! The only way I'll become ill is if I a) avoid her eagle eyes and b) cannot be done at all. So it all seems to be going well, and I am EXTREMELY proud of myself! I didn't expect it to hurt loads so it's not a case of my having been exceedingly brave but there's still a bit of horror involved in deep-cutting your own flesh. But the relief, oh I cannot begin to describe the relief! It is stinging a bit but well, it's just been cut open and liberally doused with H2O2 and betadine, what else could it be doing.
I lanced my own abscess, people! *pats back*
So yes, off to the beach tomorrow where, alas, I'll have no internet connection. It's positively primitive but it can't be helped. ?
On a fluffy note, yesterday I took extra care of my hair, then exfoliated and then exfoliated some more, then applied some self-tanner (Kanebo, I've found Kanebo here! *SWOON*), and re-applied again - and I now sport a very healthy glow. Also, lost my mind completely and bought Estée Lauder's Perfectionist CP+ bcs all the fashion blogistas I read rave abt it so much. It costs 100 euros here, ONE HUNDRED EUROS. It's obscene, thoroughly disgusting. Am still in a bit of a shock, to tell you the truth, but sometime life needs to
be shown what we want rather than holding out till it is the way it should be for us to actually get the things we want to. Yes? And the serum DOES make your skin immediately velvety, so I am hopeful I will come back looking fabulously rested and fabulously fabulous.
I'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeach!
I'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeach!
I'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeach!
I'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeachI'mgoingtothebeach!
YEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!