Hello all, me again, the weird daydreaming hypo...
First, the doctors'...
The staff at my local surgery are all lovely. No doubt about that. Brusque but caring and they recognise me by face now. But there are only two surgeries to cater for my local area, and I left the other one in disgust at how they operated. My current one is a bit like Theme Hospital: remember that game? The three doctors all have specialties which match the specialties in the game: the main doc is the surgeon, the secondary is the psychiatrist (specialises in mental stuff), and the third is technically the researcher (dermatology speciality).
Now you may note the title of the thread in that last one...I've had a god-awful rash under my breasts and encroaching onto my belly since CHRISTMAS. About twice a month or so it goes red and hot and irritated and then starts crusting over and the upper layer of skin sloughs off. Then it's nice and pink again for a few days but then it starts going red again. It spreads south across my belly; one time it even got to the gap between abdomen and leg. I've been to the doctors many times about it - Dr Surgeon sent me to Dr Researcher with one look of By then I'd run out of off-the-shelf and over-the-counter creams to attempt to deal with it wthout bugging the professionals. He gave me some strong hydrocortizone stuff to slather on.
Now for a short rant... *interval music plays* I accept the surgery is a busy place, they have lots of people who are less whiny than me and there are only three doctors, being the second of two surgeries that serve a large commuter town. But it still takes two, three weeks to get an appointment. If I make one with Dr Researcher about the rash - which he names as Intertrigo, a kind of dermatitis that emerges in skin folds - I can guarantee that the horrible lizard scales I had when I made the appointment - even pre-empting it and making one when it was just red - will have completely gone by the time I get there. So I feel like I'm wasting his time. Whilst a certain politician in these breezy islands has announced happily we'll be able to see a doctor in 48 hours if we X his box, I do call rubbish on that because the supply is being swamped by demand, and unless another surgery opens close by or this lot expands, it won't happen here. I'm also swapping my epilepsy medication over at the moment, and I'm just about to come off my old med completely, and my neurologist said Dr Surgeon should be keeping a close monitor of how it's going... well not only am I not getting my needed med reviews, he either didn't get the neurologist's letters (unlikely since I got my copies of them without a problem!) or he didn't read them. It's a good thing I'm very up to speed with my condition - which the neurologist appreciated - and was able to work out the timetable of med changes by myself, or else I'd be in trouble. They have even screwed up my prescriptions over the months of swappage too, for lack of reading the notes.
Well I managed to get in next week to see a nurse because they want to check my blood pressure before they give me any more anti-kitten pills. Only a week to wait for that one! I checked my rash today; it just finished shedding its skin (it drew blood this time too...) so it's become all red again, and I noticed that there was a distinctly uncomfortable bit on one side...turns out it looks like three angry red lines have appeared and are making things more painful, they look like wide stretch marks. I don't think the hydrocortizone cream is working because a. it's not stopping the rash and b. I think it might be damaging my skin more as the leaflet warns. I've been using this stuff for the past three ish months now; is this too long? Should I stop? Or should I ask for a third round of tubes of cream?
I don't know what else to do for the intertrigo. I've read some of the advice online but it's hard to implement. None of the common creams worked to even soothe it as I said. Dr Researcher did give me a huge supply of this medicated moisturiser called Dermol which is absolutely EPIC stuff, but it's not really healing it and that makes the skin damp; how can I keep it dry? I can't really go braless when I'm out of the house (though I do indoors). Can I make or buy a kind of sectioned cotton vest that sticks a sheet underneath to wick the moisture away? IS it my bra; what should I do? Has anyone else got this, and what helped you?
ARRRGH annoying. I'm almost ready to take a cheesegrater to it.
First, the doctors'...
The staff at my local surgery are all lovely. No doubt about that. Brusque but caring and they recognise me by face now. But there are only two surgeries to cater for my local area, and I left the other one in disgust at how they operated. My current one is a bit like Theme Hospital: remember that game? The three doctors all have specialties which match the specialties in the game: the main doc is the surgeon, the secondary is the psychiatrist (specialises in mental stuff), and the third is technically the researcher (dermatology speciality).
Now you may note the title of the thread in that last one...I've had a god-awful rash under my breasts and encroaching onto my belly since CHRISTMAS. About twice a month or so it goes red and hot and irritated and then starts crusting over and the upper layer of skin sloughs off. Then it's nice and pink again for a few days but then it starts going red again. It spreads south across my belly; one time it even got to the gap between abdomen and leg. I've been to the doctors many times about it - Dr Surgeon sent me to Dr Researcher with one look of By then I'd run out of off-the-shelf and over-the-counter creams to attempt to deal with it wthout bugging the professionals. He gave me some strong hydrocortizone stuff to slather on.
Now for a short rant... *interval music plays* I accept the surgery is a busy place, they have lots of people who are less whiny than me and there are only three doctors, being the second of two surgeries that serve a large commuter town. But it still takes two, three weeks to get an appointment. If I make one with Dr Researcher about the rash - which he names as Intertrigo, a kind of dermatitis that emerges in skin folds - I can guarantee that the horrible lizard scales I had when I made the appointment - even pre-empting it and making one when it was just red - will have completely gone by the time I get there. So I feel like I'm wasting his time. Whilst a certain politician in these breezy islands has announced happily we'll be able to see a doctor in 48 hours if we X his box, I do call rubbish on that because the supply is being swamped by demand, and unless another surgery opens close by or this lot expands, it won't happen here. I'm also swapping my epilepsy medication over at the moment, and I'm just about to come off my old med completely, and my neurologist said Dr Surgeon should be keeping a close monitor of how it's going... well not only am I not getting my needed med reviews, he either didn't get the neurologist's letters (unlikely since I got my copies of them without a problem!) or he didn't read them. It's a good thing I'm very up to speed with my condition - which the neurologist appreciated - and was able to work out the timetable of med changes by myself, or else I'd be in trouble. They have even screwed up my prescriptions over the months of swappage too, for lack of reading the notes.
Well I managed to get in next week to see a nurse because they want to check my blood pressure before they give me any more anti-kitten pills. Only a week to wait for that one! I checked my rash today; it just finished shedding its skin (it drew blood this time too...) so it's become all red again, and I noticed that there was a distinctly uncomfortable bit on one side...turns out it looks like three angry red lines have appeared and are making things more painful, they look like wide stretch marks. I don't think the hydrocortizone cream is working because a. it's not stopping the rash and b. I think it might be damaging my skin more as the leaflet warns. I've been using this stuff for the past three ish months now; is this too long? Should I stop? Or should I ask for a third round of tubes of cream?
I don't know what else to do for the intertrigo. I've read some of the advice online but it's hard to implement. None of the common creams worked to even soothe it as I said. Dr Researcher did give me a huge supply of this medicated moisturiser called Dermol which is absolutely EPIC stuff, but it's not really healing it and that makes the skin damp; how can I keep it dry? I can't really go braless when I'm out of the house (though I do indoors). Can I make or buy a kind of sectioned cotton vest that sticks a sheet underneath to wick the moisture away? IS it my bra; what should I do? Has anyone else got this, and what helped you?
ARRRGH annoying. I'm almost ready to take a cheesegrater to it.
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