THE RACE

Yes, I was surprised by this note I found in a medical release.  Yikes!

Right here, in the ultra-modern USA, on average, about 250 cases of leprosy are recorded each year.  Can you believe it?

I go to my dermatologist as often as any of my personal medical professionals (not counting my children who are scanning me for medical problems very regularly).  I'm going to ask that guy about leprosy.  My skin is falling apart.  Touch me gently - I might bleed.  I have humps and bumps and eruptions on my epidermis in more locations than I can remember.  He calls them innocuous names like "old age" spots or he says "don't worry about that one".  Are those real medical terms?    

If 250 cases are reported to the CDC each year, how many do you think go undetected?  And anyway, do you think a guy in Ohio would recognize leprosy if it crawled up on me?   How many cases has he ever seen?  I understand it is a slow developing disease.  I might hang on for a while before one of my arms falls off.  Is there a local leper colony that would harbor me?  

I already have so many things to worry about and now this.  I may have mentioned before that I felt my skin and my heart and my lungs were in a race to see which could do me in first.  I wonder if this pushes the odds of skin winning out ahead of the others.