A skin cancer PSA of sorts
Skin cancer. Honestly, I really didn’t give it a lot of thought, even when friends told me to or had chunks cut from their face.
When it came to protecting my face from the ravages of the sun, my answer was to swap out my ball cap for a straw cowboy hat. I rarely used sunscreen, and rarely is probably overstating it.
Lesson learned.
A recent visit to my doctor for my annual checkup yielded the normal good news; I’m in good health for a man of my age. There were a couple of things that, out of an abundance of caution, merited a closer look. First was a chest X-ray and stress EKG for a look at my heart and lungs because of some shortness of breath. Happily, both results were normal (for a man my age… I see a pattern here.)
On the other hand, the spots on my left cheek and left ear that never seemed to clear up took me to a dermatologist who was not as sanguine as I was about the spots, or the condition of the skin on my face.
When I’ve looked in the mirror over the years, I saw nothing that concerned me. And I knew I had logged numerous hours in the sun on the water. The dermatologist, professional that she was, wasn't fooled. She saw trouble.
The spot got zapped with some liquid nitrogen and she prescribed a topical chemo treatment for my face. The dermatologist showed me some photos of what it might look like after five days of treatment. Of course, I didn’t think there was much going on under the skin so to speak but agreed to the treatment (out of an abundance of caution, for a man of my age… your get the drift.)
I’ll spare you the photos, (if you want to see them, hit me up in the chat.)
My face was an angry red mess from ear to ear. Evidence of pre-cancerous damage to my skin. Clearly, I had made some bad choices when it came to protecting myself.
Lesson learned. Hopefully, there is nothing worse than a red face that, as I write this, is already looking better. In six months I’ll know if there is worse damage.
Take it from me, getting yourself checked out is worth doing. A red face is a whole lot better than a bunch of stitches and bandages.