Remember that song?
("Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99 If I could offer you only one tip for the future,
sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now."')
And it goes on to talk about how you should travel, floss, dance whenever you can, all of that...
I forgot how much I loved that song until I looked at the lyrics. You can head down memory lane right here if you want.
But he's right about the sunscreen. Over the past month, I've had 7 moles removed. Something whispered in my ear and told me to flee to the dermatologist to get my moles checked and thank God I did. All of them came back negative -- except one.
On my left leg, a mole I would not have in a MILLION YEARS guessed -- it does not look like any typical melanoma in the books, just a very dark freckle. And I am very freckly. Mostly from the sun.
Thankfully, it is not yet melanoma. But had I waited or not gone to the dermatologist at all, it would be. The cells are rapidly changing. I am getting the rest of it taken out tomorrow.
I was stupid in my youth. I am fair skinned but I used to lay out in the sun using baby oil. And the summers I spent at the beach, I would always eventually tan but "after that first burn of the season." Then there were the times I completely forgot sunscreen, and would (egad) blister.
One of the worst burns I ever had was a few years back when I lived in New York. I went to Georgia to visit my best friend and we went out boating on the lake. We forgot sunscreen. By the end of the day, I felt hot. I thought, oh boy, I think I got really burnt. I started shivering at the airport like I had a fever. By the time I got home, I was a beet. A burnt two armed beet with two burnt legs. I was out of work for a week because not only did I blister, I couldn't move. I had to crawl to the bathroom, burnt and naked (because clothing couldn't even touch me). It was that bad. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
I am paying for it now. And it's way more scary now because now I have little people who need me. And melanoma is the worst. The absolute worst. But the absolute easiest to prevent. I now have sunscreen in my daily face moisturizer (Aveeno) and body lotion. I have sunscreen in the diaper bag for the kids and when we go outside they are completely covered in it and we stay in the shady areas as much as possible. I won't make the same mistake again, especially with them.
Thank God we found it early.
oh girlie..glad you found that! I had an all over head to toe check last year..had several removed as well, all came back ok. Those punch biopsy things are not alot of fun I'll tell ya!
ReplyDeletekeep me posted...
Wow.. that could have been really scary. We use sunscreen on the children, but not so much on my husband or I.. living in such an overcast, gray country makes me feel less urgent about the matter when it is still really important.
ReplyDeleteI can so relate to the baby oil in the sun thing, except we were dumb enough to use Crisco. In any case, I have very fair (and freckly) skin that just burns, doesn't tan, and I'm finally reasonable enough to not ever try to get it to do either. Glad you the mole was caught in time. Now if I could go back and slap myself, I'd feel even better :)
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