Escape "Bullet
Holes" with Sunscreen!
Babysitting
was the best form of birth control for me. Once I realized the amount of time,
work and often disgusting chores that went with caring for a baby, I quickly
understood the significance of making sure I was not having one...until I was totally
ready.
Fast
forward 35 years and I have two tweens who call me mom. They are my world and
like all loving moms, I want to protect them from future harm.
Hence
the reason for these graphic pictures.
I have
skin cancer.
But the
damage was done years earlier, when as a child I refused sunscreen. When as a
teen, I lathered on baby oil and life-guarded unprotected throughout college.
When after college, I still worshiped the idea of looking tan and bought a
tanning bed. (If only I'd been born in Brazil or Australia, I couldn't have
done that because those countries have banned indoor tanning altogether.[1]")
Add all
those years up and then move to Key West Florida and you've got the perfect
recipe for more sun, more damage and ultimately...the Big C.
I now
wear sunscreen.
Thankfully with skin, it's not one of those "a day late
and a dollar short" type of scenarios.
If you protect yourself, you can
keep yourself from getting more skin damage. Our skin is our body's
largest organ, but it is usually the one that most people ignore. And "each
year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung
and colon."[2]
1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a
lifetime![3]
I have
had numerous instances of non-melanoma skin cancers through the years and have
had things cauterized, scraped, and literally burned from within by using
Imiquimod cream to kill basal cells by turning my flesh into seeping painful
patches that resembled 3rd degree burns on my entire chest area.
And
still, I thought no big deal.
I continued tanning in a bikini, walking around
without long sleeves, or hats, or 50+ UV protection... even though I lived in
Florida where the total sunny days average 259 each year.[4]
But that
view changed last week when I had MOHS© surgery on my face, And it's not over,
because I have to go back in 4 days for it to be done to my right leg for an
even larger area.
Let's
just say, I wised up.
I want
to live a long full life for my children and husband. I want to be alive more
than I want to be fashionable. So if that means wearing UV protected clothing,
a big goofy hat and zinc across my nose, so be it.
My kids
used to argue when I pulled out the zinc stick. But now they realize how
damaging those beautiful sunshine rays are to their mommy. Their perspective
has changed and now they remind me to be safe. "Mom, make sure you wear
your sunscreen. Don't forget your hat mom." Or they see clothing in the
surf shop and say- "That would look good on you Mom," instead of before
when they'd been mortified to suggest a bright colored cover-up.
Love is in the eye of the beholder. And when I
see those freckles popping up across the nose of my blonde-haired blue eyed
child, I no longer think, "how cute." Instead, I cringe with fear for
her.
Then I squeeze an extra portion
of sunscreen on her face.
She used to fight me off, now she closes her
eyes, braces herself and smiles...not because she likes it, but because she
gets it. She understands. Much like I did the first time I babysat.
So yes,
the selfie I took of myself (when the doctor left the room and didn't see me)
wasn't for my own personal gross perspective.
But it
was for my children.
And when
I get the stitches out Thursday and endure the scalpel again for my leg, I'll
probably take a few more shots just for good measure.
I'm just
thankful for the fact I have scars to show.
Because
there are no better words to hear than "We got it all."
If my
post, my gross pictures and my plea can help anyone else out there, then I've
done my good deed for the day.
Please wear sunscreen and UV protection and
slather it liberally on your children.
Because
one person dies of melanoma every 57 minutes[5].
I don't
want it to be you!
-Tammy Fitzherbert
UPDATE
UPDATE
A lot of people have asked how it has turned out so I'm including some pics of the head and the leg. I'm pretty happy with the results so far and the minimal scarring on my forehead. My stitches haven't been taken out of my leg yet so that will have to go in a later post.I wore a compression bandage for 48 hours.
It was hard hiding that big bandage but I had my favorite Carolina Panthers hat to help.
 |
| Panthers cover |
 |
| This is after I took off bandage 48 hours later. Still had the brown tape over sutures and some bruising. |
Obviously I had to keep it covered well when we went out in the beautiful sunshine:
 |
| one week later- about to get sutures out. |
 |
| Stitches out. |
Here's the leg stitched up: ( They were too fast for me to get a pic of the cancerous area they removed before they began stitching me up. But once again I was relieved to hear the words, They Got It ALL!
Until my next update, Keep wearing your sunscreen and enjoy every minute the Good Lord has given you!
Tammy "Frankenstein" Fitzherbert
[1]
Indoor Tanning Is Not
Safe. Indoor Tanning Policies. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/indoor_tanning.htm . Last updated January
5, 2016, last reviewed January 22, 2016.
[2]
Rogers HW, Weinstock
MA, Feldman SR, Coldiron BM. Incidence estimate of nonmelanoma skin cancer
(keratinocyte carcinomas) in the US population, 2012. JAMA Dermatol 2015;
151(10):1081-1086.
[5]
American Cancer
Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2015. http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@editorial/documents/document/acspc-044552.pdf. Accessed January 9,
2015.
