My Public Service Announcement

I don't plan to get on my soapbox very often on this blog, but today I am stepping on it for a few minutes.

That's me in the front, summer 2000

(sorry for the bad quality, picture of a picture, scanner still doesn't work)

Okay, people there is the proof I can tan. It's not that I can't tan, it just takes me a little longer to get there. That summer (really late spring) I stayed at BYU for spring term, worked the really early shift at the Marriott Center and Stadium, and spent the rest of the day at the pool finishing up my correspondence courses from BYU, or playing volleyball right next to the pool. I was literally in my bathing suit all day. A guy even asked me if I owned any clothes.

Today's soapbox topic is skin cancer. As we start into the fun in the sun weather, I will address whats not so fun about the sun.

Yesterday, I had another mole removal surgery. (not just the scrape it off kind of procedure) which brings the grand total to 12. I have had 12 moles removed, four of them surgically, two of those four I had to endure the scrape it procedure first, before going back and having them remove more. BONUS!! All of those have been dysplastic (abnormal cells) except two, and I don't remember about another one. It is so much fun having moles removed!!

My first surgery was when I was in Utah, John came to support me. Well they were digging out along my hair line so I had something over my face, and I hear the Doctor say, "Are you all right?" Thinking he was talking to me, I mumbled yes, but then he said, "You need to bend over and put your head between your legs." He was talking to John! A nurse then came and took him to another operating room to let him lay down. I even made it through that one okay. However, I have felt like I would pass out or throw up many times. I even had the check out lady tell me I needed to go sit down once. I also almost passed out or felt like I was going to throw up just having my stitches removed after my last surgery. I think it is about as fun as having your teeth worked on. Awful! As I sit here with my stomach stinging from the surgery, I ask you to remember to protect your skin this summer. Wear your sunblock!

No excuses. I've used them, I know what they are. No, secretly not minding you'll get a sunburn because then you'll have at least a little color. No, conveniently forgetting your sunblock, because then you'll get a little color. No thinking you need a base tan before you go on vacation so you don't get sunburned, (tans are skin damage too). No, forgetting to re-apply, because you need a little color. No saying, "but we need to get our vitamins from the sun..." All that is required there is 10 minutes in the sun, twice a week. That is basically walking from your car into the grocery store. (So, you'll have to park a little farther away, it will be good for you). I've used them all, but not anymore.

If you don't care about skin cancer, care about your skin. Think of what it will look like when you are 65 or younger really. In Hawaii, all the little Asian people wore large brimmed hats, or walked around holding umbrellas. Have you seen older Asian people and their gorgeous skin? What's the secret besides all the fish? It's not lotion, it's protecting their skin from the sun.

Granted, I am a moley person, it could be my genetic predisposition to have all these moles be abnormal, etc. But, I was also the middle-schooler and teenager that would invite the sunburns to visit me. I can't tell you how many bad sunburns I have had in my life!! Where have the majority of all my moles been removed? My back. My mom warned me when I would be laying out on the trampoline, and I ignored it, until the year I got married.

Before I was hired on at the American Cancer Society I was an intern there, and on any downtime we would watch videos to learn more about what we were doing. Then one day I watched a skin cancer video. I vowed that day to always wear sunblock, and to never again let the sun violate my skin. The video was that disgusting. It was sad too, of course it showed people having to deal with skin cancer.

Then, I was getting married, and I had been working so much and hadn't been in the sun very much that summer, so I purchased some tanning bed time to give me some color for my wedding. I went my first time and got into the sun trap, laid there for about six minutes (thinking the whole time, I'm getting skin cancer, I'm getting skin cancer, over and over), and then decided "who cares," and got out not going my full twenty minutes. "I will be white in my wedding pictures, and I will be white on my honeymoon, who cares." That was the last time I went to a tanning bed.

I had visited a tanning bed a few times before (my mother disapproved, obviously). The first time was my junior year before prom. One of my best friends and I decided we needed a tan before prom, so we purchased the goggles and the cream and went after school or after choir practice to the little tanning place by the high school. I kept my goggles and cream in the glove box, and did not tell my parents I was doing it. They either found out later, or I told them, I don't remember. Since that time, I visited the tanning bed before Homecoming one year (got toasted), and occassionally in the summer when I started working so much I didn't see the sun enough. In 2001 when I went tanning, I started noticing new small moles or freckles starting to appear it seemed like everytime I went tanning. (I used to have nothing on my legs except two moles, now there are many little ones all over.) So, when I was laying in the tanning bed before my wedding I just kept thinking, "I'm probably getting five new moles right now." That thought pushed me out of the tanning bed.

When you have a mole removed, they call you in a few days reporting what they found. You won't be able to understand the feeling that comes to your stomach when you answer the phone and hear it is so and so from the Dermatologist office, your breathing stops for a moment as you wait to hear the results, and I may even get a little shaky. A sigh of relief either escapes, or the shakiness is joined with a feeling of dread if you have to schedule a surgery. At least I haven't heard the 'c' word, yet.

Like, I said, 9 or 10 of my moles have been dysplastic (abnormal cells). To help you understand what that is, I will explain it how my dermatologist explained it:

Let's say every mole turns into melanoma (skin cancer). (which they don't, this is just to understand the word dysplastic) Picture a scale. At one end of the scale is a normal, fine mole, at the other end is melanoma. If your mole is dysplastic it is headed up the scale towards the melanoma. There are different levels, a mole can be slightly dysplastic, moderately dysplastic, moderate to severe, or severe, etc, with severe up the scale by melanoma.

I have only had two be slightly dysplastic, the rest have been farther up that scale, so you can understand why I wear spf 70, my large brimmed hats, and slather up my children with sunblock.

For the record, I do feel a whole heck of a lot prettier when I have that sun-kissed look, I really do. John even likes it when I have some sun. Like, I said to him, would you rather have me tan now, or alive in twenty years? (I will investigate some sunless tanners this summer, or try out the spray on stuff, but that probably gives you cancer too...) Of course, I may never get skin cancer, and of course I hope I don't, but according to the prevention information I am very high risk, as more moles await being removed from my body. Also, I had a cousin that they found skin cancer on her face, and they kept having to go back in and do more surgery, because they kept finding more, eventually getting skin from her butt grafted to her face. That is not something I want to happen to me.

I know my public service announcement most likely will not change anyone's sunning habits. But, if I can be that little voice in your head that all of a sudden pops in, nagging you to put on your sunblock while you are sitting there watching the surf come in, then mission accomplished.

I like to get to the beach anyway I can, even if its just my voice in your head.

To read about skin cancer, visit here and here and here. To see examples of dysplatic moles, visit here and here. (Though keep in mind, most of the moles I have had removed don't look like these, or really fit some of those things they describe as dysplastic moles. Just really be sure to notice any new moles that come on your skin, and really really dark ones. Big doesn't necessarily mean bad, most of mine have been small. If you have had it for most of your life it's most likely fine. But, everyone should go and get their spots checked out!! I'm so fortunate as to have to go every six months...)

Remember this summer to slip, slop, slap, & wrap (from the American Cancer Society). Slip on a shirt, slop on some sun block, slap on a hat, and wrap on some sunglasses. Don't forget your ears and your hairline, both common places melanoma can show up.

Stepping off of my soapbox.

Have a fun, sunny summer...

while wearing your sunblock! (oops. I stepped back up there for a second didn't I?)