Seborrhea

The first word that popped up on my handy dandy random word generator this evening was "Seborrhea". I had no clue what this word meant, but in an effort to expand my vocabulary and potentially make for an interesting blog, I googled the word. That was a mistake. The search yielded 241,000 results, but the thing that really caught my eye, the thing that made me silently scream "Great Scott!" inside, the thing that caused me to instinctively flinch back and squint my eyes in protection was the series of images in which people displayed a disgusting and uncomfortable rash-like disease in various parts of their bodies. What was this?! I set the random word generator to "uncommon", not "obscure skin diseases that will make your stomach turn to look at" (although I'm sure there is a generator for that somewhere in this infinite internet of ours). As a side note, I have always felt bad for those individuals who provide examples of diseases in photographs- they always have this awful, defeated look on their face- and rightfully so. I mean how do they get looped into getting those pictures taken in the first place? "I'm sorry Bill, it seems you have a chronic disfiguring skin condition. You will have to live with it your entire life, people will probably give you funny looks, and, I'm not going to lie, it will most likely effect your sex life. Do you mind if we take a picture of you for old housewives to look at so they can self-diagnose their kids?" Behind those pitiful expressions they're probably thinking "My God, this is the worst news I've ever recieved in my life." or perhaps "I'm going to switch to that doctor across town that doesn't employ a medical photographer." And then there are the people who don't have chronic conditions and, bless their souls, get cured. "Hey, aren't you that girl that was in the medical textbook? Yeah yeah, I didn't recognize you at first without the eczema all over your face That was some quality modeling there..." But anyway, back to seborrhea, even after the frightening images that conjured up depressing thoughts of lonely, scarred, and flat out violated people, I decided to still give Seborrhea a chance as the random word for this blog, clicked on an about.com link, and began to read. "Have you noticed red or flaking skin around your nose or in your eyebrows?" the site inquired of me. Um, maybe when I have a cold? "How about in your scalp- especially over your forehead or ears? If you answer yes, you may have something called seborrheic dermatitis or seborrhea." Nope. That's all I can take. I am NOT writing a blog on seborrhea. An hour later, I realize I have just successfully written an entire blog on just the subject. I'm not sure if that's an accomplishment, or a cry for help.