Random Thought #5: My love/hate relationship with the sun

I realize this post will probably sound like some public service announcement you see on TV or hear on the radio, but it's something I think about pretty often so I thought I would share some of these thoughts on my blog. Plus, it's about time for another random thought anyway.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the sun. Basically, I love the sun, it just doesn't love me back. While I spent numerous hours as a child and teenager enjoying the outdoors and playing under sunny skies in the pool or beach, I was typically rewarded with some form of sunburn (a few were pretty bad) to my fair skin despite a faulty optimism that I could/would someday achieve a tan. Now that I think about it, I believe the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Hmmm...

Anyway, in a nutshell those years were followed by high school marching band, which meant lots of time outdoors, plus, and I shake my head at myself as I say this, a few trips to the tanning bed in college. Now I'm not about to unleash some anti-tanning bed rant, though I don't believe they're safe to use at all. I just seriously regret ever using one because of the additional damage I did to my skin for no good reason.

So I bring all of this up because my mom unfortunately developed a small basal cell precancerous lesion on her nose that had to be taken off today. It wasn't very big at all, in fact you'd hardly even know it was there except for the fact she had mentioned a small place on her nose that just wouldn't heal up. It would seem to get better, then bleed a little bit, try to scab over, but never fully go away. She dealt with it for a long time, probably close to a year, before getting a dermatologist to look it because it seemed so insignificant. A while back her brother had developed a melanoma (the most serious form of skin cancer) on his arm after lots of time on the golf course (go figure, red-heads and the sun just don't seem to jive either). And her mom, my grandmother, had also had a basal cell skin cancer taken off of her nose after many years of sunbathing with oil back before everyone knew how dangerous it was. It had gone deep enough that the doctor had to remove a considerable portion of the skin around the affected area.

Thank the Lord (and I don't mean that flippantly) that what my mom had removed was easily done today and that hopefully that spot should now heal up on her nose without further need for medical intervention. Just thought I would encourage everyone out there to pay attention to your skin (and to encourage your family to as well) and any changes in it, and to please not put off a dermatologist visit to get something checked out. I remember seeing a cross-stitched sign in my dentist's office that said "The five most dangerous words in the English language: Maybe it will go away". Isn't that the truth!

And with summer coming up and our kids wanting to hit the pools, remember that those early years of sun exposure can make a big difference! My mom's surgeon said about 85% of a person's skin cancer risk can be attributed to the number of bad sunburns in early childhood. And tanning beds are a big no-no too.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now :)