Angel is on her 10th day of battling severe back pain, unable to stand straight and walk. I’m sure that before this excruciating experience, Angel was not as aware of how good life could be without a wracking back pain and being able to move around with her two legs. But during these past 10 days, Angel thought a lot about life without this pain and incapacitation. It led her to think about all the blessings of life and how she took them for granted. This is an example of how simple things like a pain-free body, eyes to see, arms to hug loved ones, legs to hike trails, etc. are often taken for granted. When something like our health is compromised or taken from us, we come to realize that health must always be one of our priorities in life.
The problem is self-discipline in everything we do, taking responsibility for ourselves, being more vigilant with bodily changes and symptoms, especially those that suddenly appear.
Here are some skin lesions that may save your life if evaluated early:
• Tender, violaceous red nodules (bukol) can mean the presence of: tuberculosis, lymphoma (cancer), ulcerative colitis (GIT problem), infection (viral, streptococcal, fungal), intake of a drug.
• Chronic urticaria (wheal or swelling on the skin) recurring for more than six weeks: malignancy (like leukemia, liver, lungs, etc., autoimmune disorders, parasitism, infection (of any kind like hepatitis, leprosy, etc.), dental caries, thyroid disorders.
• Gyrate erythemas, a very itchy reddish, scaly rash described as lace-like pattern or wood-grain pattern pasted on the skin: breast, cervical, lung or kidney cancer or any form of cancer.
• A non-healing (meaning not responding to treatment) eczema especially if adjacent to the genital region: Extramammary Paget’s disease, mycosis fungoides, allergic contact dermatitis ( from a metal placed inside the body due to fracture for example).
• Non-healing ulcer: pyoderma gangrenosum, Merkel Cell carcinoma, lymphoma, leukemia cutis.
• Exfoliative erythroderma in which the skin is itchy, continually flakes, and as a rule is continuously shedding: lymphoma, leukemia, malignancy, presence of skin problems like psoriasis, seborrhea, atopic dermatitis.
• Thickening of the palms and soles may mean esophageal cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, genodermatosis, or psoriasis.
• A sudden shower of warty growths on the face, neck, and torso can mean cancer.
• Acanthosis nigricans or thickening and darkening of the neck, armpit, singit areas, areola, umbilicus and dorsal knuckles, especially in the non-obese can mean malignancy, presence of hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance.
• Jaundice, palmar erythema (red palms), and spider veins can mean liver malignancy.
• Painful gynecomastia (enlarged breast in males) can mean an endocrine or non-endocrine tumor. It can be a sign that might precede clinical and radiographic recognition of lung cancer.
• An extensive, refractory to treatment dandruff, severe recalcitrant to treatment stomatitis (singaw), and multiple, recurrent molluscum contangiosum may mean the presence of AIDS.
• Vitiligo (porcelain-like white discoloration of the skin), together with alopecia areata (poknat in layman’s term), is associated with autoimmune disorders like autoimmune thyroiditis, diabetes, pernicious anemia, myasthenia gravis, etc.
• Small, less than 1 cm. linearly arranged or clustered flat topped papules (butlig) called lichen planus, can be associated with hepatitis B and C.
• Bull’s eye, targetoid or iris-like lesion (pink red ring around a pale center) that appears all over the body can mean the presence of malignancy, collagen disease, hypersensitivity reaction to drugs, herpes simplex, bacterial or fungal infection.
• Dryness of the skin (acquired icthyosis) can tell you that one has myeloma, Hodgkin’s disease).
• An abnormally severe infection like herpes zoster that suddenly becomes generalized, necrotic (death of skin, causing it to become black like in meningococcemia), hemorrhagic or recurrent (in normal subjects, zoster usually occurs just once) can mean internal malignancy.
• Paraneoplastic pemphigus, described as an intractable stomatitis with blisters on trunk, arms, and legs, is strongly associated with lymphoma, leukemia, severe pulmonary disease.
• Dermatomyositis, an inflammatory connective tissue disease characterized by skin photosensitivity, papules (butlig) and elevated patches on hands, elbows, and knees, periorbital edema (violaceous discoloration of the areas around the eyes) with symmetric weakness of the proximal muscles of the shoulders and hips. If seen in women, it can be associated with adenocarcinoma of the ovary, breast, squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix and vagina. If in men, cancer of the lungs, stomach, and kidney are sometimes seen.
• Anal fissuring, angular cheilitis, apthous ulcers or stomatitis, painful slow-healing ulcers, nodules (bukol bukol), vulvar lesions can lead us to an intestinal problem of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
Every human being is the author of his own health or disease, therefore being vigilant to any first sign or symptom of a disease is the very first step to good health. When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. Being watchful of one’s health is the first sign of being grateful for having good health.
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For inquiries, call 09174976261, 09282302825 or 484-7821, or e-mail gc_beltran@yahoo.com.