aka Huntnlady
I can't tell you how scary it is sitting in the doctor's office and just having heard the doctor tell you that you have skin cancer.
Skin cancer. The words are horrifying. And yet it is a measure of relief, having had this red spot growing slowly on my eyelid for two months, and now knowing what it was. My regular doctor had no idea what it was. Prescribing a steroid cream to shrink the "rash" had produced no results. In fact, it was getting progressively bigger. When I first noticed it, it was just a red mark the size and shape of a mechanical pencil eraser. Now I would describe it as the size and shape of a squished penny. It had gone through half my eyebrow, was growing upwards from my lid.
My family doctor referred me to a dermatologist, but my insurance took over 3 weeks to approve the visit. So now I was sitting in the dermatologist's office only to hear him utter those fateful words and pass me the brochures on Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
Skin cancer. But even though it was an aggressive growth, we seemed to have caught it early enough. A matter of cutting the thing off my face, and hopefully that would take care of it.
So what had caused it? Plain and simple- exposure to the sun. The damage had been done long ago. Possibly when I was still a little girl. When I was a kid, there was no such the as sunscreen. The closest thing we had was the white zinc oxide cream lifeguards and surfers would slather on their noses. Sunburn at the beach? My mom said it would just turn into a tan. It wasn't until the late 70's that sunscreens appeared on the market and became a big thing. They were on the same shelf as tanning lotions.And now I am paying for past skin damage. Why am I telling you this? Not because I want you to feel sorry for me, but I want you to take ample precautions against the sun. Protect your skin; it is the largest organ of the human body. Use sunscreen on any exposed skin, even on cloudy winter days. Any exposed skin includes the ears, the back of the neck, and even the eyelids. Let my wake-up call be a warning for you. Skin cancer can be fatal, and ours is a sport played under the sun. Don't let it happen to you.
Huntnlady