So… back when I was studying for Step 1, I had all sorts of crazy stress reactions, and even got a touch of dermatographia – I would break out in a stripe of hives whenever I got scratched or bumped.
I mentioned this to a family medicine attending who likes skin findings and really likes to take pictures of them for an online database that he uses to teach residents and students. He told me that if I ever had it again, I should get him a picture.
This was fresh in my mind because I just finished a month-long course with another doctor who takes photos of any interesting physical finding he comes across… after 20 years of practice, he has a photo of everything.
So tonight, as I mentioned earlier, I was feeling kind of stressed out, and I started breaking out in hives. This happens regularly, but it’s usually just a single hive, maybe two. But tonight I got four across my upper chest and shoulders. I thought, oh! Maybe my dermatographia is back! I’ll scratch myself and take a photo.
Dermatographia means skin writing, as classically one could use a pencil and write on the skin and it would appear as letters of red welts. So I figured I would also use a letter for demonstration. I figured A is the first letter, kind of the typical letter to use, and plus it’s my initial. So I scratched myself in the shape of an A just below my collarbone and waited.
No hives.
…which, I just realized, is for the best, because I literally just attempted to emblazon my chest with a scarlet letter.
(there’s only faint scratch marks which I trust will be gone by morning… more of a pink letter.)
No comments:
Post a Comment