fires, skin cancer, rash

FIRES
lately around here because of the heat and lack of rain fires
seem to be a daily or weekly occurrence
when i drove to dallas this week there were quite a lot of
areas that had burned around here

when we got back from our wedding journey this summer and
after we heard the story of the fire that burned the peoples
house we stayed at during the wedding we mowed a large area
around our house as a protective barrier
one cigarette onto our pastures would burn all my property
we have had several old hackberry trees die from the drought
also and these would burn easily

the fire would go fast and probably couldnt be stopped before
the fire departments got there
luckily my house sits on a 1 acre enclosed area inside the middle
of my property
we have kept the grass cut low this summer on this 1 acre
(we only cut it once since it was dry as it all went dormant
it is all native grasses)
the rest of the pastures have been allowed since we have been
here to go completely la naturale
i have planted native grasses also in bare spots over the last
few years
so 90% of my property would burn rapidly
this is what use to happen on the prairie before we all got here

near here a fire broke out this week and burned 15 homes and
displaced quite a lot of people
luckily the fire departments acted fast to contain the fire
a few days before a few miles away hundreds of acres were
burned and was eventually contained
luckily no loss of life occurred

what we need is an end to this drought
on a recent walk i stuck my walking stick (thanks jr for the stick)
into one of the cracks in the pasture and the stick went down
3 feet into the ground
that first rain we get will probably disappear down all those
holes

in my pastures there are patches of green stuff growing
everything else is brown and dormant
as i went to a grass seminar recently on native grasses i was
able to identify the grass-it was switchgrass which is a native
grass that is good to have on your property
it got there when i planted the seeds a few years ago
maybe it will spread since the others arent seeding this year

a new storm is brewing in the caribbean
maybe it will head this way and give us some rain
lets go h-------- storm

SKIN CANCER
today i pay the price of sun worshipping a lot during my lifetime
i have a lesion that has popped up on my left cheek that
appears to be an actinic keratosis (a pre cancerous lesion) that
grows from too much sun exposure
if it is this ak (actinic keratosis) it willl be frozen off and be gone

if it has developed further as i have neglected to have it taken care
of for a few months (doctors make bad patients)
then it may have developed into a squamous cell cancer which
will have to be surgically removed
or
it may be a basal cell cancer which is also treated surgically
once it is removed it rarely returns

the one you dont want to get is melanoma
here is a picture of what it may look like



see the brown areas around the edges with the black
areas in the middles
thats what a melanoma looks like
if you have one of this dont sit around and watch it grow
it can metastasise to anywhere in the body
if caught early it can be cured as cured as cancer is cured
if caught later it becomes more difficult to treat

why did i get this lesion on my face
i worship the sun
i have always been an outside person all my life
and have not been a good sun screen person until the
last several years
a lot of damage got done when i was younger that now im
paying for
there probably will be more that will show up as i get older

note: most of the melanomas ive seen in my career were
in young people in their 20s and 30s

so wear a wide brimmed hat
wear long sleeves when possible
use a good suncreen that doesnt sweat off
reapply sunscreen when needed during the day
avoid going outside the hottest times of the day
wear sunglasses
if you get a lesion get it checked
dont do like i did and wait awhile before you get it
taken care of

RASH
videomedicine is the way of the future assisted by skyping
texting and emailing

(i recently was a participant as a patient in a videomedicine project
of the university of texas medical center in dallas using it to do
long distance videoconferencing of a neuropsychological exam
this will be used to do assessments at isolated clinics miles
away from the university)

my wet suitcase sisterinlaw is in central america with her family
something always happens to her every summer when she goes
there
last time she got a bad staph infection in her foot from stepping
on coral or something when surfing
she eventually recovered but was miserable for days with fever
and pain

now this time she got a kidney infection and was running fever
this started the same day she got zapped by a sting ray on the
heel which caused a great amount of pain

after two days of the antibiotic she developed a rash and felt
miserable (again)
so she texted my wife she and later emailed me so i could get
a better history without having to read all that text jargon some
of which i couldnt understand
rsh rd swln fvr nd yur hlp
so i got a good history from her by email
we tried skyping but the connection was bad and i needed a
finer picture to look at
so she texted me a picture of a body part that appeared to be
a thigh
it was the rash that you commonly see in a reaction to antibiotics
she was told to stop the offending antibiotic
take benadryl every 8 hours until she could get into the doctor
in a few hours
and to drink extra fluids to help flush her kidneys well

so this is how we may all communicate to get health care in
the future

i didnt mind doing it for her as i owed her for the wet suitcase story

she eventually went to the er there and got a shot (probably a
steroid shot) and got a new prescription for a new antibiotics
24 hours later she felt much better

austin texas october 15, 2011



the organicgreen doctor