A Big Hole in Your Foot, Aunty!
Feet are made for walking, skipping, and running not for foot cancer.
“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”
…Leonardo da Vinci
Warning, please do not read my true story if the pictures make your skin crawl. This is only my personal experience and journey. I only want to provide information to help someone take better care of themselves. (A short story)
The start of a happy-go-lucky day
Texting 7/6/2022 at 12:52 pm…
“Good day, Daisy/Lewis (siblings) I go get my yearly body mole checked today, 7/6/2022 at 1:40 pm
at Derm R Us, 1800 Pimple Pop Drive, Dallas, Texas.”
End of text…
Dressed for the beautiful sunny day
I leave out my apartment, wearing my loose-fitting gym wear (green pants, yellow sunny t-shirt which will be easy to take off at my appointment, and my sunhat/wide brim with pink Birkenstock sandals, which I have not worn in a while but do not need any tennis on today) heading down the hallway thinking of the long drive ahead through mid-day traffic.
No problem, this is Texas!
The speed limit is 70 mph which means I can go 80-90 mph to get to the appointment in time.
Elevators broke, both of them, now at the apartment building. There is a big red minus sign symbol where the floor number usually displays.
I take a deep breath and think…” HAPPY DAY… HAPPY DAY…Have a HAPPY DAY CRYSTAL!”
A cute couple, dressed in athletic casual wear just walked from parking garage Level 3 (3 levels below Ground/lobby floor) to the 3rd floor. (How do I know this? They told me.)
Upon opening the heavy stairwell door, the woman says, “Elevators are broken!” And the man says, “and someone was stuck in it for 20 minutes before they got them out!”
“Wow,” I say, “Well, I am walking downstairs to my car on Level 2 and ya’ll have a Happy Day!”
I make it to the parking garage and say to myself, “I am glad I am going down the stairs.” The stairwell doors are very heavy to open. I know where my workout routine, at least one of them, needs to be…the stairwell! Cardio and strength training.
I get in my car which is parked near the elevator and the stairwell door.
Now, I set the “directional finder” for 1800 Pimple Pop Drive, Dallas, Texas.
On my way to the dermatologist’s office now
As always, Autobahn of Texas…here I go!!!
You got to be alert! You know what I mean. Lane switchers with no signals, lane hoggers that do not let you get in front of them, even though, there is not much room to go anywhere because of all the other cars, drinks thrown out the car window in front of you, bumper fell off another car and not moved off the lane on the tollway/expressway you are in, and you have to snap to the next lane to miss the bumper and hope you miss the next car too!
You got to go with the flow or get run over! You got to wear seat belts!
1:20 pm, I arrive in Derm R Us parking lot with minutes to spare
It is hot, if I have not mentioned this already…a very hot, 100+ degree Texas day! Sunny, beautiful, brilliant blue skies kind of day!
The office building yard is nicely newly mowed, and a cement gray picnic table sits on the grass for employees to take breaks and talk on cells and get away from their offices in the building. A couple of staff members are having a lunch break presently with lunches brought from home. No fast-food sacks in sight. This is a physician's office building after all, right?
I place the silver accordion-shaped car visor on the dashboard to ease the heat for the car on my return.
Walking out of my car to the sidewalk and about twenty steps to the office door. Air conditioning, YIPPEE!!!
Take the elevator to the seventh floor and Derm R Us is around the corner.
I check in at the front desk, sit in the waiting room for 15 minutes, then was called back to the care room after a few minutes by med tech, Marky.
Marky asks, “how may we help you today?”
“Yearly, mole check,” I say.
As Marky leaves out, she states, “Dr. Derm will be with you shortly. Please put on this gown, open it to the front, and use the other paper sheet for covering.”
“A seborrheic keratosis (seb-o-REE-ik ker-uh-TOE-sis) is a common noncancerous (benign) skin growth. People tend to get more of them as they get older.
Seborrheic keratoses are usually brown, black or light tan. The growths (lesions) look waxy or scaly and slightly raised. They appear gradually, usually on the face, neck, chest or back.
Seborrheic keratoses are harmless and not contagious. They don’t need treatment, but you may decide to have them removed if they become irritated by clothing or you don’t like how they look.”
Seborrheic keratosis — Symptoms and causes — Mayo Clinic
Moles of another kind to consider
What are the symptoms of foot cancer?
“Foot melanoma is a type of cancer which affects the skin cells of the feet. It can occur anywhere on the feet or ankles — including the soles of the feet and under a toenail.
If detected in the early stages, foot cancer can be treated effectively. However, in most cases, signs and symptoms go unnoticed or are ignored which causes diagnosis to happen at a later stage.
The risk potential is higher at a later stage — if the cancer spreads then it can become life-threatening.
Which is why it is important to check your feet for signs or symptoms of foot cancer on a regular basis.” — Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle
7/6/2022 at 2:56pm back in my car 102 degrees by car temp, texting
“Ok Dermatologist appointment just finished 1:40 pm — 2:45 pm.
All body moles look proper like they should for someone/me with seborrheic keratosis.
My right foot has a blue nevus mole that I told her that a Memphis dermatologist took a biopsy of in 2016.
I told her I always had this mole on my right foot, and it was half an inch in Memphis.
Dr. Derm says, “it is unusual to have this type of mole under the bottom of your foot.”
She says it is longer than half an inch now. She took a biopsy since it has been 6 years since the last biopsy in Memphis.
Dr. Derm office will contact me in 2 weeks about the biopsy results, I contact them if they do not contact me, she says.
Otherwise, I see her a year from now for body moles recheck.
Praying Godspeed & claiming all good for the bottom of foot mole.”
Thank God my niece dropped by
Later, after I got home my niece dropped by and I was in the bathroom sitting on the edge of the tub. I asked her to clean and dress my foot.
“You got a big hole in your foot Aunty; MaKayla says with painful, near-tear emphasis on her face.”
I called my sister, “I think Dr. Derm took the mole out. MaKayla says, “look like a big hole in my foot.”
“YIKES, does that hurt,” my sister says. “HELL YEAH, it hurts! I had planned on visiting our ill brother Todd before he went back to work from his surgery weeks ago, no way now! I can barely walk.”
The next day after crying during the night
I never saw how it looked till today, I am sitting in a remote work meeting presently; cleaning, airing out, and dressing this wound.
Not wasting time on this
Going to get open wound checked on my right foot, not waiting on this one. “The devil is a lie!!!”
See, I had been walking for exercise and to lose weight before this. Ok got to pray, Meditate, pray.
Primary Appointment visit to examine my foot wound
My primary knows I do not like to be sick (who does) or come to the doctor if I do not have to come in. After checking in and being taken to a care room, the medical tech, Carey asked, “What brings you in today?”
(I was about to burst into tears. I was holding them back. The staff are used to seeing me in a happy, cheery, positive mood when I come to the office, even if I am sick or in pain.)
I told her, “I went to the dermatologist’s office for my yearly mole check and thought I was getting a scraping for a biopsy on my right foot mole, but it was removed.” “Painfully removed” and she knew I was very upset. She explained how a biopsy means removal. I told her “Scraping and total removal are different. I thought this would be like the scraping in 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee at the dermatologist there.”
Carey said she would be back.
Carey left the room and came back three different times asking me different questions each time. Then, doctor Toscano came into the room. I was laying on the exam table with my sock off so my foot could be examined. He, pat me gently on my left arm three times so as to comfort me in my time of pain, disbelief, and agony.
What Dr. Toscano said in my exam is included in the following email.
Email sent to Dermatologist….
“7/11/2022
Dr. Derm,
I have been a thankful patient of yours for a few years now.
7/6/2022, I had an appointment 1:40pm for my yearly entire/All body moles exam.
All moles look proper like they should for someone/me with seborrheic keratosis you said.
My right foot had a blue nevis mole that I told you the Memphis dermatologist took a biopsy of in 2016. It was benign. (The Memphis doctor never removed the mole.)
I told you I always had this mole on my right foot, and it was half an inch in Memphis.
You said, “it is unusual to have this type of mole under the bottom of your foot, it is longer than half an inch now, and you need to take a biopsy since it has been 6 years since last biopsy in Memphis.”
You stepped out of the exam room. Your med tech, Elastina, I believe was her name, said the doctor is going to scratch off a piece of the mole and had me sign a permission document on the tablet. I thought scratch off a piece of the mole is the same as was done in Memphis.
You came back to the exam room and the procedure was very painful (I got nothing to deaden the area) and I thought you scratched off a piece for the biopsy. You told the med tech to put a Band-Aid on the area you worked on.
You said, your office will contact me in 2 weeks about the biopsy results, and I contact them if they do not contact me.
Otherwise, I see you a year from now for body moles recheck.
Dr. Derm, I did not know a hole was in my foot. I left your office in pain and had to get a few groceries and had to go to the restroom in the store. Later, when I got home and took my foot out of the sandal, a puddle of blood was under my foot in the sandal. My foot was in so much pain and I could not reach it. A relative told me I had a hole in my foot. The same relative cleaned and dressed the foot.
I would have appreciated being asked for the total removal of the mole. I would have said, No! I have been wearing compression hoses due to a medical issue. I have been walking to lose weight because of high glucose and triglycerides and unable to now. This was my birthmark! I feel sad and scared because I cannot afford for this hole to get infected. I have been sad, crying, and feel violated.
Today, 7/11/2022, I had an appointment with my primary, Dr. Toscano to exam my foot wound. He asked how many stitches I received, and I said, none. He said there is about a half-inch hole where the mole was and that it looks like dermabond may have been put on it instead of stitches. He asked when I am to return to your office for a follow-up and I told him I was given a procedure paper for my foot and return in a year for my yearly mole body check.
Dr. Toscano, could see I was very upset and told me that I need to contact your office since this procedure happened in your office and to tell you how I feel because if I do not then your office thinks everything is ok. He states that I should not have been released from your patient care until my wound has healed.
Thank you for your time in this matter.
Regards, Crystal Guthrie, [email protected], 901–286–0744 cell”
I got home and followed Dr. Toscano’s suggestion and emailed Dr. Derm’s office. Dr. Derm’s email staff sent a speedy reply stating, “Dr. Derm would get my email today.”
Dr. Derm calls me around 5:00 pm about the email I sent her on 7/11/2022.
7/11/2022 Dr. Derm called me I texted my siblings afterward
7/11/2022 5:20pm” I just got off phone with dermatologist Dr Derm who called me.
Her staff member sent my email to her as they said they would in the reply.
She said the color of the mole did not look right to her.
She said biopsy means take out the lesion and not a piece of the lesion. If she had left part of the lesion in then it would grow back.
It should not grow back now.
The hole will fill in. Can’t put stitches on foot, forgot name she used. I asked was this a blue nevus?
She said it was an Intradermal Nevus mole and she wanted to make sure no melanoma. Pathology report came back benign.
She said she never removes moles if not necessary.
Said she was concerned.
Says she can call in over the counter antibiotic ointment and I said I got bacitracin already from primary office. She said that is what she recommends too.
She said take aspirin or Aleve if aspirin not strong enough.
I go back 7/21/2022 for free no charge wound check.
She said feel free to contact her or her office. She cares about her patients.”
I feel Death of a birthmark! I feel violated!
Note: Since I cannot reach my foot my relative has to dress my foot for me all these past few days.
7/21/2022 Visit to Derm R Us….
Foot cancer is real, get your feet checked out
“In July, the trainer took a second look. Unsure what to make of it, he sent Josh to the team’s podiatrist, who referred him to a dermatologist. The spot looked suspicious enough to warrant a biopsy. The initial biopsy result was that Josh had an early-stage melanoma, a dangerous type of skin cancer. It was clear that the lesion would have to be removed without delay.”
Text to siblings
7/21/2022, 4:44 pm in my car now, out of Dr. Derm office visit. I ask questions and Dr. Derm says, most time “people of color” moles get overlooked.”
“Like it’s just a mole. When it is not, but cancer.”
People have died from foot cancer, and it was too late. This black football player caught his in time, thank God, and is living. Everyone needs their moles checked per Dr. Derm. She said my mole looked black and did not look right, and now we know it will not be back and it is about 75% healed. Give a couple more weeks and keep using antibiotics after cleaning and wrapping up. FYI.
I usually check all body parts; intuition urged me to have Dr. Derm check my foot this time… I sent a text out and a 79-year-old cousin states she needs to get the mole on her foot checked.
Information about foot issues with cancer
Skin Cancer; Types, Images, Symptoms, Rash, Spots, Bumps & Skin Cancer Treatment — A2Z Healthy
9:00 am, 7/22/2022, Mz. N, my 89-year young senior citizen, called to check on me and about my foot at the dermatologist. I told her what I just told ya’ll and she said, “old folks use to say do not remove moles off your body, so they did not, caused cancer.” I told her a lot of people/black people believed that and that is because no one was going to specialists or doctors for those things.
For more information read the following:
Foot melanoma: Symptoms, causes, and treatments (medicalnewstoday.com)
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” — Khalil Gibran
“You Can’t Jump for the stars if your feet hurt.” — Dan Brown
“Walk and be Happy, Walk and be Healthy.” — Charles Dickens
“Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.” — Gary Snyder
“Keep on keepin’ on!”
Have a Happy Day!