Under my Skin

 I went to the dermatologist today.  Because I’ve had previous skin cancers, I have to go every 6 months to get a full body skin check.  Today they found another suspicious spot on my face and took a biopsy.  I’ll get the results next week.  Even though it’s a tiny spot, easily treatable, and easy outpatient surgery if it’s positive, it’s still pretty gut-wrenching to get the call saying you have cancer.  I’ve gotten 3 of those calls and I hope I don’t get number 4. 

I’ve had 3 skin cancer surgeries, all on my face. The last one was less than a month ago. If this comes back positive, it’ll be number 4.  I asked why they all seem to be on my face and she said that it gets the most sun exposure of any part of your body. Since I grew up on a farm and worked outdoors as a farmer in my younger days, along with thousands of miles in trucks with my arm propped on the window, I’ve had more than my share of sun.

The surgeries I’ve had were called Moh’s surgery.  As the surgeon explained it to me, skin cancers are like icebergs.  What you see on the surface is just the tip.  Most of the cancerous tissue is below the skin. They make an incision and go in and remove the cancerous tissue and do a quick biopsy to see if they got it all, what they call clear margins.  If they got it, they come back and sew you up.  If not, they continue to remove tissue and check again until the margins are all clear.

I apparently inherited my father’s skin. While my skin is a little darker and he had very fair skin and although he never had a cancer show up, he had a great many pre-cancerous spots frozen or burned off.  He was nearly bald, and said when they froze spots off the top of his head, it gave him brain freeze like eating ice cream too fast!  He also had 2 or 3 chemical peels that were like the torment of the damned.  He said it was like your skin was on fire and it made him so nauseous.  I hope I don’t have to go through that.  

The point of this post is this: take care of your skin.  Use sunscreen, liberally and often.  Wear a wide brim hat.   Wear long sleeves when possible.  Limit sun exposure during the hottest parts of the day.  And see a dermatologist regularly. 

Update:  The spot on my face is cancer.  They’ve scheduled my surgery for February 8.  I’ll keep you posted 

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