I mentioned that I’d had a thing removed from my arm in October, and that my dermatologist thought it was a dermatofibroma, but it wasn’t. Instead it was an atypical leiomyoma, and because of the location, it’s quite rare. The pathology reported some alarming features and no clear margins, so I had to have it re-excised in late November.
Boy, I’ll tell you what, that local anesthesia injection really hurt with the re-excision. My dermatologist said that’s because the body very quickly forms thick scar tissue in the healing process, which later gets remodeled into thinner, less bulky tissue. Because I had the re-excision just a month after the first excision, the injection just sort of ripped all that thicker tissue apart.
He showed me how much tissue he took for that one—it was a lot more than I thought he’d take, and I could see the fat globules just like you see in anatomy books. It was oddly compelling. The incision itself is less than beautiful, although I still think it will improve. At least I hope so.
The path report came back with minimal information—basically all it said was yup, you got clean margins.
But at my annual physical with my PCP in November, I mentioned all this and shared the path report. Because these atypical leiomyomas are also associated with kidney cancer, he ordered an ultrasound. And guess what? I have a couple of small tumors on my right kidney. So a week ago, I had a CT scan with and without contrast dye.
Now here’s the thing. I’m allergic to contrast dye, and the last time I had it, I got hives. So I had to take prednisone and Benadryl ahead of time only . . . I got hives again. Worse than the first time. Any thought I had that maybe I wasn’t really allergic? Gone. I’ll finish up the new course of prednisone today, and thankfully the hives started going away pretty fast once I started on the full course of treatment.
And to put a pretty bow on the story—yes, I have some small benign angiomyolipomas on my right kidney. I’m sure we’ll follow those to make sure they don’t grow. The report also said this: incidental noted is prominence of the IVC. I wondered if that’s because I’m a runner? Who knows.
Boy, I’ll tell you what, that local anesthesia injection really hurt with the re-excision. My dermatologist said that’s because the body very quickly forms thick scar tissue in the healing process, which later gets remodeled into thinner, less bulky tissue. Because I had the re-excision just a month after the first excision, the injection just sort of ripped all that thicker tissue apart.
He showed me how much tissue he took for that one—it was a lot more than I thought he’d take, and I could see the fat globules just like you see in anatomy books. It was oddly compelling. The incision itself is less than beautiful, although I still think it will improve. At least I hope so.
The path report came back with minimal information—basically all it said was yup, you got clean margins.
But at my annual physical with my PCP in November, I mentioned all this and shared the path report. Because these atypical leiomyomas are also associated with kidney cancer, he ordered an ultrasound. And guess what? I have a couple of small tumors on my right kidney. So a week ago, I had a CT scan with and without contrast dye.
Now here’s the thing. I’m allergic to contrast dye, and the last time I had it, I got hives. So I had to take prednisone and Benadryl ahead of time only . . . I got hives again. Worse than the first time. Any thought I had that maybe I wasn’t really allergic? Gone. I’ll finish up the new course of prednisone today, and thankfully the hives started going away pretty fast once I started on the full course of treatment.
And to put a pretty bow on the story—yes, I have some small benign angiomyolipomas on my right kidney. I’m sure we’ll follow those to make sure they don’t grow. The report also said this: incidental noted is prominence of the IVC. I wondered if that’s because I’m a runner? Who knows.
