Punch Biopsy, Stitches and Dermatologist Visit

On Friday 7/28-I went to my first ever dermatologist.  I was referred by my doctor for a weird cluster of marks on my ankle.  The doctor had no clue what it is and sent me to the dermatologist.  When I get there, the dermatologist also didn't know what is on my ankle and decided I needed a biopsy. This strange marking basically appeared over time.  It went from what I thought was a pinch from a buckle on my shoe, to a cluster of dark marks.  They don't hurt, they don't itch and they aren't raised.  They look like a a bunch of blood blisters to be honest.  My concern is that they are spreading on my ankle, rather than going away over time.

I had what is called a punch biopsy.  Where they use a tool, to punch out a chunk of skin (including part of the fatty tissue) for testing, and then stitch the hole. This is my first ever cut into any part of my skin and my first ever stitch.


I must say I am getting better with the doctor's office and have learned to calm down.  I had to get a shot of Lidocaine first, and they always ask if you are allergic to certain things, but in all honesty, I couldn't tell you.  I am not a big medicine taker, I don't run to the doctor for any and everything...so I said, well I guess I will find out after I am injected.  So far so good...no issues.  There is a slight burning when the medicine reaches your blood stream, but it still wasn't as bad as my dental appointment I had the same day, or as bad as the Hep A vaccine I just got (they say tetanus hurts, but that's false compared to Hep A).

I will get my results back in about 1-2 weeks, fingers crossed it is nothing, and they can offer me a cream to remove the dark spots.  I also need to get my one stitch removed in about 2 weeks, I could feel that being sewn and that was weird for sure.

This requires a lot of maintenance, cleaning twice a day with an unscented soap, Vaseline and Band-Aid.  They gave me band-aids, but they are so small that the sticky part touches the damn stitch. What the hell?  I am using my own bigger ones.  At least they gave me Vaseline, cause I really don't use it and don't own it.  Right now I have it worked out, that I placed some gauze behind my band-aid, and I know the stitch is protected.  Last thing I want to do is pull that by accident.

I also cannot do any vigorous working out.  This puts a damper on my vacation body and I have to keep up with abs and arms for the next 2 weeks.  I am going to attempt the treadmill Tuesday, but I think I won't be able to hang.  You never realize how closely connected all your joints and muscles are until you can't use them.  Sleeping has been a doozy, if I don't position my leg correctly it feels like the skin is tearing open.  I didn't sleep well today because of it.  I turned too fast and thought I ripped the whole stitch open.  Other than that, life is peachy and I am hoping this is nothing more than tender skin that has been bruised.

I'll post an update once I know what the issue is, if any.


So I realized that I never came back and updated my results.  This is very old, but I am alive.  It turned out to be a benign rash called pigmented purpuric dermatosis.  Basically inflammed capillaries.  There is no known cure and the only thing they said that would help is compression socks and moisturizer.  So I basically went through all that for nothing.  I am happy it is really nothing, but the stitch and the constant changing of the bandages made more marks then I had before.  I still keep an eye on it to make sure there are no new red marks and I keep more heavy lotion on it than before.  Other than that, it is just an ugly mark I will have on my skin, because I don't forsee it going away.

OOTD Week 7/24

This week I had planned to wear black and white.  I am currently helping my Aunt clean her room and sort her storage...my pride and enjoyment in life.  ORGANIZING!!  While sorting we came across some nice jewelry, all big and 80s-90s style.  Stuff I love, so I came home with some pieces, and they ended up being in a similar color family.  So black and white it was!

I have stopped painting my nails to match temporarily and going with whatever color I am in the mood for.  This week it was a magenta with silver glitter flecks in it.  Nothing fancy and I didn't even take a pic of the nails.

Food Prep Week 7/24-7/28

This week I was craving a BLT.  So that's what I had.  Imitation bacon of course.  I used Morning Star, even though their products have dairy in most of them.  I really don't understand why?  There has to be another way to sub the dairy and make the "meat" vegan.  They can do it for some of their products, so I don't see why not all.

Anyhoo!! Enjoy my BLTA, cause it was the bomb.  I found a high protein bread, it also has dairy in, but when I went to Nugget, they did not carry the bread I wanted like they said they did when I called ahead.  Boo to Nugget.  So while I was at WalMart I found a protein bread that was much cheaper, like $2.68 vs the estimated $9.99 for the other brand at Nugget and more slices in the WalMart bread.
This loaf has 8g per slice and 60 calories per slice.  The P28 bread has 14g per slice and 100 calories per slice.  So all in all, I did better with the cheaper softer bread.

I had, pickles, onions, tomatoes, avocado, butter lettuce, honey mustard, left over turkey and ham and my bacon.  I did have real meat, dairy (from the bread and bacon) and honey, from my Ken's mustard. But I also refuse to let food waste--so I finished the meat from a few weeks ago.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I ate the sandwich with my lightly salted BBQ lays.  Also left over crumbs, that I needed to finish.

Enjoy the pic, I think it looked pretty fancy.

OOTD Week 7/17

I am still not dressing in a color theme, so I am just wearing whatever I want.  However, I will say that I think I ended up wearing white in some form the entire week.  I guess I subconsciously still dressed in my theme.  I also didn't paint my nails this week.  I was being lazy and took a break.  I actually broke one of my nails so badly, it was hanging on crooked.  It took two days to cut the nail down short enough to bear.

Food Prep Week 7/17-7/21

I used my handy dandy cookbook and made minestrone soup this week.  The portions in this book are huge.  This recipe makes 4 servings and when I portioned everything I had to put it in to containers that were 5.3 cups and they were full to the brim.  I also paired my soup with some orzo.  I love orzo, not quite rice, but not a pasta either.
Her recipe calls for either broccoli or green beans.  I opted for broccoli, but I won't use that again. That was not a taste I liked.  And I HATE green beans, so that will never be an option.  I used carrots, celery, onion, kale, broccoli, yellow potatoes, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, navy beans, black beans and half veggie broth and water.  I grabbed some seasonings, and put in the crock pot.

This was so filling, that I actually gave one of the bowls of soup to a friend.  I couldn't even eat it all.

OOTD Week 7/10

This is a variety week!  Basically I had a bunch of outfits I had put together for different weeks, and for some reason or another they didn't get worn.  So, I am going to wear them this week.

Food Prep Week 7/10-7/14

I used my trusty cookbook this week and made Jackfruit Carnitas.

This is the first time I ever cooked with Jackfruit and was quite pleased.  I will say the sodium is through the roof, but all in all it was very good.  I bought the canned Jackfruit from Sprouts and used my crockpot.

The recipe calls for veggie broth, but honestly I need to stop using it.  I bought the low sodium broth so that helped.  However, I should be using water.  I know I am not going to make my own broth, so that's not an option.

I added a house seasoning. I also added some cilantro, garlic, onion  and chipotle cubes.  I originally bought them at the 99 cents store, but Wal-Mart carries them for pretty close to the same price.

To top my tacos I added salsa, tofutti, vegan shreds, lettuce, avocado and onion.

I let the Jackfruit cook for 3.5 hours and it was more than tender.  So far I am happy with everything I am creating from this book.  It has changed my ideas up enough that I am not stuck eating the same things over and over.

Enjoy my tacos:

Food Prep Week 7/3-7/7

I can't even share food pics here, because I didn't food prep this week.  I already knew what was coming my way with 7/4 and 7/8.  Lots of junk food and crap.  I enjoyed my week believe me, but I am happy to be back on track.  My vacation is coming up in no time, so I need to get this body together asaply.

I will post my delicious Carrot walnut burger I had at Mother though.  It was very good, but I won't be going back for a long while. The cook was filthy and stuck his dirty hand inside a sauce to taste it and tell a customer what it was like, rather than dipping a spoon in the sauce and checking like a normal person would.  I will be posting on Yelp for that too.  Their food is way too expensive to be disgusted.

For lunch on my bday, we made sandwiches.  I ate vegan for that and it was the bomb.

For my bday dinner, I had sushi and sake bombs.  That was the bomb too, so enjoy the deliciousness of that too.

And on the 9th we went out for Mexican.  I knew I wasn't going to do vegan here, so I ate what I wanted.  It was very good, but very greasy.  My body can't handle anymore.

                     Mother

Homemade 

Mizuki

Ernesto's

OOTD Week 7/3

This was another short week, which I loved.  But at the same time it messes with my outfit flow.  I didn't really have a color theme exactly.  I just wore the outfits I had originally planned for the previous week, before it was ruined with spirit week.

So you will see a red white and blue casual outfit for Monday.  Then rust for the remaining days.  We were closed 7/4 and I took 7/5 off...so it was quite nice.

                    I couldn't decide if I liked the pic with our without the cardigan, so enjoy both.

Food Prep Week 6/26-6/30

Dinner this week was from the Vegan Cookbook again.  It was a the sweet potato chili.  If you get the book, page 93.  The bomb.  This has light red kidney bean, white kidney beans, black beans, corn, and diced tomatoes.  I usually just season it with whatever I grab, I don't usually follow a recipe for their seasonings.  I added quinoa and veggie meat crumbles.  I also topped this with Tofutti sour cream and ate it with tortilla chips.

This was the damn bomb.  So good and incredibly filling.

OOTD Week 6/26

I wanted to wear this cardigan in Monday's picture.  So I went with the color rust, or burnt orange. Then we had spirit week and it messed up my color flow.  I didn't even paint my nails to match the outfits.