The new you before Christmas!
While we’re immersed in this season of gift-giving, what’s the best gift we can give to ourselves?
Being healthy and beautiful is one way we can celebrate Christmas with a bang!
Here’s a list of some of my happy, beautiful patients who got their Christmas gifts (that keep on giving) well before Christmas.
Janine, 20, has been my psoriasis patient for almost four years now. She started with me as a recalcitrant case of psoriasis (difficult to treat). She did not respond to the usual topical and oral treatments so I decided to put her on biologics. After the first injection, she was okay, but then she developed sudden reddening of the skin in several areas after the second injection so I shifted her to another biological drug as I was worried she might develop toxic epidermal necrolysis!
She did pretty well for two years until she developed koebnerization (lesions appearing at the site of injection). A few days later, new psoriatic lesions appeared again, surrounding the area of koebnerization. After a few more days, new rashes appeared all over her body. So I decided to do a skin test, which resulted in a drug hypersensitivity reaction. I then shifted her again to another biological treatment. So far, she is doing better now, and I hope and pray she does not develop another reaction to this drug.
Digna, 25, is another psoriasis patient of mine, who is on the obese side. She has difficulty managing a type of scalp psoriasis and is embarrassed about her condition as friends have started to notice the scaling and red elevated portions on her scalp.
I also started her on a biological treatment which made the rash disappear like magic! After a year of being free from distress, she suddenly developed a large painful lump on her left armpit. I gave her an antibiotic which greatly improved her problem but did not really get rid of it. I extended her antibiotic intake, then did a drainage of the much smaller lump now, but still, I got a lot of pus. Her lump eventually disappeared completely. I then put her on another drug that can treat both her psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa at the same time. And again, I asked her to start losing weight.
Ed, 19, is a recent patient of mine. He was diagnosed by another dermatologist to have prurigo nodularis (a skin condition that causes hard, raised bumps on the skin). He had this sad, worried look on his face when he came into my clinic because he consulted Dr. Google who said that it may take 10 years before he could get a cure for his ailment.
His mother, who accompanied him, was teary-eyed and very worried, wishing her son would be spared of the agony. On physical examination, I noted that aside from the very small prurigo, he also has flat top bumps which were slightly reddish in appearance, more obvious and prolific than the prurigo. So, I started to treat him, and he got better. He promised his mom he would be a better son from now on and would change all his bad habits.
Finally, here’s Mike, a relative of another surgical patient of mine. He consulted several months ago from the US. He had a bulbous nose, but I must admit he had very beautiful eyes and a lot of humor. I did rhinoplasty on him and since it could be a complicated case, we had to administer sedation.
Males are less tolerant of pain compared to females, which is why I opted for sedation. The procedure proceeded unremarkably, and the patient was very happy. I asked him to follow up after four days for a partial suture removal. While I was cleaning the wound, I noticed pus coming out of it. I also noted two small areas of what seemed to be a necrosis. I panicked, of course, because that was not supposed to happen.
He told me that when he cleaned the wound, he first inserted the cotton tip applicator inside his nostril to clean it, then started cleaning the incision areas with the same cotton tip applicator (a lot of microorganisms inside the nose). I also noted that there was a lot of crusting on the incision site. I cleaned the area very well, drained all the pus I could drain, removed the necrotic tissues, then prescribed him with two new antibiotics for full coverage of the infection.
I then asked him to come back after two days for the removal of the remaining sutures on the areas of the side of his nose. He called me the next day to tell me that he manipulated the incision areas and cleaned them, which, again, terrified me as I did not know how he did it.
Luckily, on the day he came back, there were no new lesions noted, the two small wounds were forming granulation tissues already, meaning starting to close). Before he left, I told him empathetically that he must not manipulate the wounds again and that he had to inform me of whatever changes there were but not to touch the incision areas ever again. In two to three weeks, I hope the wounds are in full recovery.
Welcome a happy, healthy new you before Christmas.
