November checkup

I had my checkup a day or two ago and nothing much to report really.
My blood results are good. My weight is steady. My other conditions are under control or in the hands of other specialist departments at the hospital. All good.

I've been taking Aciclovir for a few months following my throat infection back in the summer. I've also been taking septrin for the last 16 months or so. These have both been discontinued, leaving me with a daily dose of allopurinol to minimise the risk of gout, and omeprazole to keep the acid reflux down.

I played a celebratory gig with my band last night (www.facebook.com/daveclemo)and it went well. I was very tired from standing all night and so slept well.

Sixteen months of remission. All good.

November 2011

It seems a long time since my last post. My Appendix operation has healed and the scars are faint; I've had a sigmoidoscopy which revealed some inflammation but the biopsy couldn't find anything. I'm still getting problems but nothing like as bad as before. I have an appointment to see a specialist next month.

It seems that I've visited every department at the hospital. While undergoing treatment for CLL I had to see the eye specialist because of a bad attack of scleritis (which turned the whites of my eys to a lurid shade of red) That's currently cleared up, but my CLL specialist is keeping a watch on that.
He kindly referred me to a skin specialist about a year ago because my right index finger was looking very sore. It was diagnosed as Bowen's disease, a pre-cancerous skin condition, and two does of Photo-Dynamic- Therapy has cleared that up for now, and although the skin still continues to crust up, the lesions have healed.

I asked the skin clinic for treatment to rid my hands of some warts. They've blasted the warts with liquid nitrogen three times so far, but they're still there. It seems that my compromised immune system is allowing the virus that causes warts to thrive. I go back for a checkup after Christmas, so I'll ask for some more treatment then.

When I had my last appoinment at the skin clinic, I asked them to look at a spot on the end of my nose. I still get the occasional spot (I had really bad acne as a teenager) and I think I had a spot on my nose back in the summer. It never healed but would continue to bleed from the scab. They decided that it was pre-cancerous so made me an appointment at yet another department.

I had the appointment last week and was told that it was a basal-cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, so I will have a small operation in the coming weeks to remove it.

So although my CLL is under control, there are a number of other issues to keep the doctors busy. I'm working my way through the various hospital departments, and getting to know people all over the hospital. To illustrate this I had to walk through a clinic area on my way out of the hospital last week, and all the staff knew my name.

Is this a good thing?