Last year, we found an allergist who prescribed a season allergy treatment for my son which left him nearly symptom free for the first time in his entire LIFE. We just got back from his annual check-up with new prescriptions already called into the pharmacy. This is life changing for both him and for our entire family!
From November to February, he takes both Singulair and Allegra every day and after a nightly saline spray, he uses Flonase. Occasionally, he needs to use the neti pot. LIFE. CHANGING.
THANK YOU, LORD!!!
I’m participating in a month of Thanksgiving hosted by Rebecca Writes. If you want to join in, post something you are thankful for and then link up over at Rebecca’s blog!
Back in June, in a 7 Quick Takes post, I mentioned (in take #6) that I was developing keloid scarring after my surgery. In my case (thankfully), I should use the term “hypertrophic” scarring. I get a lot of hits on that post and I see the search string nearly EVERY day in my stats, so I thought I’d follow up for those who hit my blog looking for info on hypertrophic scarring and possible treatments. First, let’s clarify the difference between keloid and hypertrophic scars:
“Hypertrophic scars are typically raised, erythematous (red, pink, or purple) and stiffer than the surrounding skin. Over time most hypertrophic scars mature resulting in a scar remnant that appears like that of a normal scar except it is typically wider than if the scar had not become hypertrophic. Note that when an incisional wound heals normally, the resulting scar remnant may be as fine as a simple pencil line across the skin, while the matured hypertrophic scar may appear wider, like that left by a pencil eraser. Hypertrophic scars often are associated with hypersensitivity to touch (like clothing sliding across the skin), and they may itch or be generally painful.
Keloids have been described as hypertrophic scars on steroids! By definition, a hypertrophic scar remains within the boundaries of the original injury while a keloid may grow beyond those boundaries. Also, while hypertrophic scars typically regress over time, keloids generally do not.
Because the distinction between hypertrophic scars and keloids is often unclear, the medical literature and medical professionals often use the terms interchangeably.” (For more info and treatment alternatives, visit the source of this quote.)
The hypertrophic scarring was not a surprise for me. I had the same problem after my two previous abdominal surgeries. My mom has a few hypertrophic scars. Maybe it’s hereditary.
Back in June, my doctor treated the scar by injecting steroids directly into them. There was still swelling and numbness, so I didn’t feel a thing. Then in August, he injected steroids into them again and still numb, I didn’t feel a thing. He also suggested I tape the scar – just apply medical/paper tape directly over the scar, providing slight pressure and support 24/7. There are indications that the application of paper tape reduces the scarring. The paper tape stays on for days, even after showering.
So on Friday, I was back for my six month follow-up and while the scar isn’t worse, it’s still hypertrophic. I admitted to my doctor that I was good about taping it for about three weeks. Then . . . not so much. More steroid injections into the scar. And I’m not so numb anymore. ouch. and again. OUCH. But seriously, that pain? Compared to what I’ve already experienced? nuthin.
I am going to be more consistent about the taping.
So says FavoriteSon. Three days after I declared myself the “counter tyrant.”
Every time I see one tiny little thing on the counter, I start asking, “Who left this here?” “Who used this?” “What is this?” “Where does this go?” “Can I get rid of this?”
Then I start calling children: “PinkGirl? FavoriteSon? Come put this away. Come throw this away.” Finally, in frustration, FavoriteSon came up with the protest which titles this post.
I kinda like it.
I couldn’t take it anymore. On Saturday, I cleaned the kitchen counter. I put every. single. thing. away. A conglomeration of STUFF. The tribbles of the kitchen counter.
Today, right now? A clear counter AND a clear kitchen table.
I’ve been reading a little C. S. Lewis lately. Today I read the November 1st and 2nd entries from “A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works.” He’s a tough read. I may have mentioned before that I respond to his writing in a number of different ways.
Sometimes, I think he’s a pompous windbag who delights in using words the common man (that’d be me) has to look up in a very old dictionary because the newer dictionaries have already stopped including said words due to lack of use. (This is why I sometimes refer to him as “Jack,” as his friends called him. It reminds me that he’s just a guy and that I need to take what he says with a grain of salt, as the saying goes.)
Sometimes I have to read a phrase or a sentence or an entire paragraph multiple times before I have half a clue what the man is trying to say.
Sometimes I understand immediately what he’s saying and I adamantly disagree.
So why read him?
Because when the man DOES make a point with me, it often resonates. He sometimes states something so succinctly that it hits the core of my belief in a certain area. Thankfully, those moments occur more often than the windbag, re-read and adamantly disagree moments.
One book that consistently hits home is a small work of fiction entitled “The Screwtape Letters.” It’s a series of letters from an older demon (Uncle Screwtape) to a younger demon (Wormwood), advising him on how to bring about the downfall of the human (the patient) to whom the younger demon has been assigned. It’s a backward concept for the Christian reader, especially when Lewis consistently refers to God as the “Enemy.” His assessment of human nature and temptation makes me think. Case in point:
When the patient repents, Screwtape outlines Wormwood’s blunders:
“…you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there – a walk through country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words, you allowed him two real positive Pleasures. Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger in this? …
…you were trying to damn your patient by the World, that is by palming off vanity, bustle, irony and expensive tedium as pleasures. How can you have failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet? Didn’t you foresee that it would just kill by contrast all the trumpery which you have been so laboriously teaching him to value?
And that sort of pleasure which the book and the walk gave him was the most dangerous of all? That it would peel off from his sensibility the kind of crust you have been forming on it, and make him feel that he was coming home, recovering himself?
As a preliminary to detaching himself from the Enemy, you wanted to detach him from himself, and had made some progress in doing so. Now, all that is undone.
…the man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favour of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books.”
I get it. Thanks, Jack.
Have you read something interesting you want to share? I want to read it! If you post about it, link up in comments – or just post your quote in a comment. Check out other book quotes I’ve posted by perusing my “therefore I quote” tag.
.” He’s a tough read. I may have mentioned before that I respond to his writing in a number of different ways.