A-Buuuuuuuhhhh....

I know that because this story backs right up to my Tonsilloliths post, I might just sound like a total hypochondriac. However, these few things just piled up on me all at once! I think my body and surrounding infectious attack agents knew I would need extra energy because of all this packing and moving stress. And it's all hitting me at once!

While on our cruise with the families (check out my many pictures posted about a week ago), I had my mom take a look at a mole that I have had on the back side of my scalp pretty much all my life. Because I had a feeling it might be changing a little, and because she has always sort of kept an eye on it for me (because it's on the back side of my scalp where I can't really see it), I had her take a look. She was concerned that it had changed and maybe even grown a little since the last time she had seen it, and urged me to see a dermatologist as soon as we were back from our vacation.

(I can't stop thinking of Austin Powers every time I type the word mole. Watch this scene as well as this scene and finally this scene to understand why it's... A-BUUUUUUUUH... hilarious!!!)

Friday afternoon I called a local dermatologist and made an appointment to have the mole evaluated on Tuesday (this morning) at 11:00. Once I got off the phone, I decided to myself that even if the mole was deemed healthy and not at any risk of being a problem, I still wanted to have it removed. Why? Well, it's just a really big mole. And, even though it's hidden by my thick and massive hair, it is always a big issue when I have my hair cut.

So the weekend passed and I went into work for a morning shift, from 8:00 until 1:00 on Monday. During my work in the studio, I noticed that my elbow was super itchy. And there were a few little bumps on it, like a mosquito had gotten to it in the middle of the night or early in the morning.

I shrugged it off and went about my work, but by the time I got home around 1:30, these itchy welts were getting bigger, and the three "bites" had turned into about seven or eight pink, warm, intensely itchy welts. And my right arm had a few now, too. But since I tend to get pretty big welts from mosquitoes anyway, I just kept shrugging it off like it was nothing.

But the itching. I mean, come ON! It was insane.

Once I got home and changed from my yucky, glaze-splattered work clothes, I noticed that my legs were itching as well. Now I had welts on both my arms and both my legs. And they were getting itchier and bigger and they were all little hot spots. I called my mom and asked her what she thought they might be. We ruled out a second round of chicken pox (I had them when I was little), and we ruled out shingles. With my mom, I still decided this was probably a super-hungry mosquito, or maybe even a few fleas, that got into the bedroom on Sunday night and ate me alive.

Luckily, since I already had this dermatologist appointment scheduled for this morning, I was able to ask her about my "bites" as well as show her the moley-moley-moley on my head. First, we talked about my mole, and I told her that even if there was no risk in keeping it, I wanted it removed. She got out a few tools and got set up immediately! Wow, I thought this would require a consultation, a biopsy, and a separate appointment to have it removed. And here she was, ready to go! Woohoo! She took a look at my mole and decided she wouldn't want it staying anyway, because the side of it I thought might have gotten a little bigger was the side that she thought was a little irregularly shaped. Yes, it was big enough to have sides!

Once she numbed the area with a tiny needle, she just sliced it right off. A little topical cream to keep any germs out, and she was done. Then she took a look at my legs and arms. "Whoa! I bet you're ready to crawl out of your skin! This is some kind of rash, I'd say." Who knows what I got into, or what I got on me, or what Vespa got into and got on me, but it's something that my skin does not agree with. I mean, look at this! These are a few pictures of the spots on my arms and one spot on one of my legs. Are you itching yet?


I have a steroid in pill form to take every day as well as a topical cream to put on twice a day. I'm not starting the steroid until tomorrow, but I put the cream on as soon as I got home from the pharmacy. The itching has gone away a little, and hopefully it'll go away totally pretty soon.

Now I am a clean-tonsil (I'm instantly down 10 notches to the rank of "normal morning breath" now!!! Be so happy for me!), mole-free, itchy person. And hopefully the itchy part will stop very soon!