Love this weather!

The heat really has broken, at least for now. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day out there. It wasn't too hot and there was a bit of a breeze that just felt nice. Ian and I went for a long - almost epic - walk to enjoy the wonderful weather.

Ian bought a pair of those Reebok EasyTone shoes for our walks. He can walk so much faster than me that he doesn't get much of a workout on our walks so he figured that the shoes might compensate for the slower walk. His calves were definitely a bit sore afterwards so it's possible that the shoes actually do work. They don't appear to cause him any harm, at least.

I'd love to have a pair of those shoes, if they really did work. I'm worried that walking in them would hurt my lower back; apparently they're like walking on sand, sort of, and the last time I did uneven walking I ended up with a very sore lower back. I could barely even move for almost two days that time and I have no desire to repeat that experience. And I guess I'm heavy enough that I get quite a bit of benefit from any walking that I do.

On an unrelated topic, I've been watching the spots on my shoulders. I don't remember whether I mentioned them before or not: they're little skin-coloured bumps that pretty much cover my shoulders. They're very hard for me to see unless the light is perfect. When I can see them, they have a matte look (as opposed to my shinier skin), have irregular borders, vary in size up to about 1/4" in diameter, and appear to vary in colour a bit from very light to a light brown.

We're fairly sure that these spots are sarcoidosis. There's a very small chance that they could be breast cancer, which can spread to the skin, but skin mets tend to look more like raised nodules and these are hardly raised at all. I guess they could be caused by some third disease but I'm refusing to consider that right now. I have enough systemic illnesses, you know?

No matter what's causing them, the problem is that these things are spreading up to my neck, down my back, and down my arm, all mostly on the right side. I've been putting the corticosteroid cream on them but it doesn't appear to be making a difference.

I need to see my family doctor about these, I guess, to get a referral to someone who can help me deal with them. I don't want to go back to that doctor who did the skin biopsy that confirmed sarcoidosis in my elbow scar because when I asked him about the thing on my leg, he said it was varicose veins and wouldn't entertain the idea that it was also sarcoidosis. Well, the corticosteroid cream made that thing almost completely disappear so it certainly wasn't varicose veins, now, was it? I don't want to go back to him. In an ideal world, I'd see someone who specializes in sarcoidosis on the skin.

I have a hard time seeing these things on my shoulders so I'd like to take Ian, who can almost always see them, to see my family doctor. However, Ian's been so busy at work that he might not be able to easily take the time away. It's not like this would be a critical or emergency appointment, after all. So we'll see. Going without Ian does have its advantages - mainly that I can do some leisurely shopping at several places, if I want, after the appointment. That's always a plus :)