Everyone who knows me is aware of the existence of one of the world's most irritating scars on my upper left arm where I had my bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination when I was 12. In other simpler words, when I was 12 a nurse stuck a needle into my upper left arm and gave me a vaccination against the fatal m. tuberculosis.
Anyway, for those of you who don't know what a keloid is…
Keloids are lumps of scar tissue which grow at the site of trauma or injury to the skin. Unlike other scars, however, Keloid Scars are larger than the site of the original injury.
Basically, this growth on my skin has been a nuisance for the past 5-6 years and up till recently, all GPs and dermatologists alike have concluded that there is no known 100% guarantee cure for this huge red ball of collagen and I've actually resigned myself to it's existence. What irked me, however, was the fact that this… thing… still hasn't stopped flourishing after almost 6 years. It has grown and grown and would probably continue to grow unless something is done about it! A dermatologist I consulted a couple years back gave me a few options – laser surgery or steroid injections. The former doesn't work for everyone and the latter has side effects (doh, steroids). Another method of reducing it that was recommended was the usage of silicone gel plasters and after 6 months of RM90 patches and no visible reduction, I stopped using them and voila, whatdoyouknow.. it continued blooming as if feeding off my body *sulks*. Bleah. Just 2 weeks ago, mum dragged me to a skin specialist, Dr. Cheah, whose clinic my brother frequented a couple of times (after been nagged and harassed by my mum after acne nightmares) and after minutes of consultation, I watched the doc take a syringe out of his drawer and the next thing I knew, that thing was nicely embedded beside my keloid *cringe*.
Anyhow, I went back home to Penang for my second cocktail jab. But to my horror, it was not just one.. but two jabs! Apparently, the first was to flatten it, and these two are to shrink it and hopefully, reduce its redness! I hate jabs. Yuck. ANyway, it seems to be working which is of the very very good! *grin*
Hah. Take a look at my keloid and gasp in absolute horror at it's hugeness
*sulk*
1 comment
So Thank You « psychobabble says:
Dec 27, 2006
[...] January saw me in KL living without my family for the very first time. Stepping into a class as a stranger for the very first time. Not knowing a soul in classes for the very first time. Back in school, come Std 1, I already knew a few people like Daphne Ch’ng and Sarah Kang and by the time I was in Std 5 or Form 1, I already knew most of the people in my class. In KDU, I had Lyn, Cheryl, Venetia and Rachel and to some extent, Dawn. But in HELP, for the very first time, I was alone. In some ways, it was liberating – like I was given a chance to start afresh. This month, I met people that have changed my life – Jack, Priscilla and Debbie. When it came to old friends, it was the long calm before the storm. February, I went home for CNY and things changed….. and my bond with some friends strengthened, others weakened. Truthfully, I wasn’t too happy with the group I was mixing with then. and had loads to say about most of them. March was when I began to break loose of the group (due to reasons I shall not mention, but we all know as I couldn’t seem to stop whining about them) and started to hang out with Jack more often than the rest (he started assuming the role of the thorn in my side circa this time). I suppose, the stress of groupmates and coursemates aside, I was rather happy. Everything else seemed to be going fine. April was before we went back home. We were making plans to move out and the month was filled with flat/apartment-hunting and furniture purchasing…I also started using WordPress instead of Blogger. May was more of a blur to me. I moved to B. Psych (the local 3+0 course) and was rather lost initially. I started chatting with King online. Towards the end of May – that’s when things started getting funny back home in KL. June …. the month where nothing much happened really. I started getting cocktail jabs to try and flatten the keloid on my left arm. Shit hit the fan at home. Life sucks, get a helmet. Yeah. You get the drift. This was also the month when my wall shelf came tumbling down from my room (in Penang) and fractured my poor Dad’s back. July I went for CF Camp and had the time of the year and met so many people and got to know those many people well. Honestly? Gotta really thank Jack and Pris for nagging me about it. Ghee left for Hong Kong Oh. And some!@#$%^& hacked into my MSN account and decided to play games with me. August came and there was a climax to household tension but later in the month, things started looking up – the holidays were just around the corner… and Joel and Julianne, my Uncle Hoong and my Aunt Jennifer were in Penang! Anyway, I started getting.. reminisce-like, all broody and all unXinch-like.. it was when things started to change. September were college holidays and… honestly? Nothing really much happened here. I suppose I spent most of my time at home or frequenting Gurney to hang out with my old colleagues and Jolene came back! We were also preparing ourselves for Lyn’s departure to the land of the leprechauns so we had a mini farewell thing all the way in Tambun October was the start of something new – both internally, and externally. The situation shifted almost the moment I hit KL after the holidays. I learnt a lot about myself.. and about dealing. I spent a lot of time reflecting on things and I learned one very important lesson… which I will not divulge due to privacy reasons but – you can keep guessing November came along and we got ourselves a new housemate – Kim Soon. We went to watch Ryan Star in Zouk for the Channel [V] Party (check out the repeat of the show on Channel [V] on the 29th of December, 00:00/20:00!!) and of all a sudden short semester was nearing to an end. [...]