This is getting old…

So, I had my three-month dermatology check this week. Now, if you don’t know me, you’re probably asking, “Why does she have to see her derm every three months? Isn’t that a little excessive?”

Here’s the Cliff notes: I’ve had many instances of melanoma in the past 6 years, necessitating surgical removals of tumors/spots from my face, shoulders, back, stomach, and thighs. Going every 3 months helps keep my derm guy on the watch for changes.

And I had some this visit.

A biopsy of a spot on my shoulder that he is 99% positive is another cancer, probably melanoma because, apparently, my body likes that type of skin cancer. He also did a cryogenic freezing removal of a precancerous spot on my nose.

A two-fer. I haven’t had a two-fer in a year.

Lucky me. (Did you detect the sarcasm here?)

I haven’t been a sun worshiper in over 35 years. I’m gonna be 65 next month so that means when I hit 30 I stopped dousing myself in lotion and laying out in the sun.

Too little, too late, it turns out. Before I hit 15 I had 2-3 bad sunburns every summer because I am the very definition of pale-skinned. All the Irish heritage has played against me. I got the light eyes, light eyebrows, and light skin and the predisposition for skin cancer. When I was a kid, my mother used to slather me in baby oil and iodine and tell me to go lie out on the roof to get some color.

Boy, did I get color. The wrong kind.

As a teenager, my skin had toughened up a bit, and I was now responsible for the products I used to tan. Remember Ban de Soleil? It was basically baby oil in a spray can. There were no SPFs, nothing to block the rays. In fact, the oil attracted them—right onto my pale skin.

I stopped worshipping the sun when I turned 30, not for any health benefit. I just didn’t have the time anymore. I had a family to take care of and a career. Hours of sunbathing was a thing of the past.

It’s too bad I didn’t make that decision in my teens. It would have saved my 50s and 60s-year-old life a lot of money in surgical fees for skin removal and repair.

When I go out in public now, I have to wear a lot of makeup to hide the scars—of which I have five very prominent ones on both cheeks, forehead, chin, and under jawline.

I was never pretty. Now? I shudder to think what runs through people’s minds when they meet me without makeup.

ANyway. This was a long-winded way of saying a few things:

~ get a yearly dermatology check if you can

~wear a hat when you’re out in the sun, and sunglasses

~wear sunscreen EVERY SINGLE DAY.

~avoid harsh chemicals on your face and body like rock salt body scrubs.

Take care of your biggest organ, kids. Be kind to it. It’s the only one you get!