Things Skin Cream Won't Do

I've had an interesting couple of days of learning.

After probably six months of a progressively worse minor pain in an area I've been referring to as "the down there area," It finally got bad enough after last weekend's drive back and forth to South Dakota, that I complained about it to Christopher. He, rightly, turned to me and said "You need to go to Urgent Care."

I took that advice into advisement, and kind of ignored it on Tuesday morning. Yesterday, though, I decided I couldn't keep ignoring it. So I got up in the morning and headed to Urgent Care to get there just after they opened at 8am.

It was remarkably empty at Urgent Care, so I got in pretty quickly and got to have my chat with the doctor by probably 8:30 or so. He was a very nice man. We talked about what issues I'd been having and what had brought me in. I pointed out where the pain has been concentrated, as well as the kind of "side issues" I've been having.

He looked at my painful areas. He put on some gloves. He looked again, a little more closely. He backed away. He took off his gloves. He said "I think we can get you some cream for that."

What?

"It's weird that you don't have any itching, but I think I see some discoloration, like a rash. So we could get you some skin cream for that."

Will it help the pain?

"Well, no. But if you'd like I can give you a referral to a skin clinic."

Would that help the pain?

"Well, no. But I could get you that skin cream."

But that won't help the pain, right? So maybe I'll skip the cream.

The nice doctor left pretty soon after that, and gave me a referral to not the skin clinic but an orthopaedic walk-in clinic. And, there, I found some people who didn't offer me even the smallest amount of cream, unguent, salve, or ointment of any kind.**

You know, I'm all for skin creams for rashes. Or itching. Or acne. Or as a help in mitigating the look of a scar. Or even for ringworm on your upper arm. (Don't ask.)

But skin cream for acute pain in the down there area? Well, maybe not.

**In fact, the woman I saw - as she was leaving - chuckled and said "I didn't see any rash, though."