Mark's Spots Update

Several comments on yesterday's post made me realize I've never updated the story of Mark's mysterious spots. As you can see on his arms in the pictures below, he still has some but they are definitely improving.

He's had a really rough time. He was literally covered in these raised, itchy, hive-like spots that seemed so random and mysterious and the doctors [he saw 3 different doctors, all from different specialties] couldn't seem to pin it down. It was pretty awful as the itching was terrible and then most of the spots turned into what looked like giant, weepy, gross blood blisters.

The dermatologist drew 7 vials of blood and did a biopsy from one of the sores [and they were sore!] and was not willing to commit himself to a name of any kind until all the test results were back in. The blood tests all came back negative, which was a good thing, because they those tests were for what the doc called 'bad stuff'. The biopsy results were slower to return but finally, we were given the name of "Sweet's Syndrome". I can tell you that there's nothing sweet about this infection, but that's the name.

It was interesting to read up on it and to discover that it's very rare, sometimes viral or can be a reaction to a more serious condition, like leukemia or cancer. As I said before, thank goodness for those negative blood tests!

They are healing now but it's been quite a process. The skin that was affected [and there was a lot of it] has all dried up and peeled off and now there's new, soft pink skin. There are some spots that have just faded down so that they aren't raised anymore at all, but just look like a red spot [on his arms and neck area, front and back especially] and they seem to just be gradually fading out.

The doctor told him that his feeling is that it will never happen again, that it was just some random viral 'event' that somehow Mark ended up having to endure.

He endured very gracefully - much more so than I did. I was mad. Really mad, that someone as kind, generous and good-natured as Mark had to deal with something as ugly as this. Rest assured, I know that being nice and kind doesn't guarantee you anything, but I can tell you that I was not happy about this happening to him. His attitude was much better than mine was.

But things are looking much, much better and I'm so grateful.