I use to want a tan, but not anymore. When I was growing up (I’m in my late forties now), there wasn’t the big campaign as today about the warnings on too much sun exposure and how it can severely damage your skin and cause skin cancer. Back when I was young, I would slather myself up with baby oil and bake in the sun for hours. I would get such severe sun burns on my nose that it would peel and bleed. All my friends did the same and looked the same. We all walked around with our burnt skin peeling off our bodies. I remember peoples shoulders and chests having skin falling off. We all did this just to get a tan – all for vanity’s sake. We thought to get a tan, get burnt first – because you know…it turns into a tan eventually and we’ll be looking good.
Well here I am decades later and visiting the dermatologist every 6 months. It all started with me wanting my husband to get checked out. He is a builder and has worked outdoors for the majority of his life. I decided to get checked with him because it was the only way to get him to go. We went and the doctor looks him over and tells him everything is good. I get my exam and they start slicing on me immediately. This mole looks suspicious, that mole does also and so on. Can’t believe it – the irony of it all!
Every time I go now, something new is cut off me. I noticed I had a tiny dry patch that was no bigger than a pimple on my cheek. You couldn’t see it and it would never go away so I pointed it out to the doctor. Of all things, that tiny dry thing was cancer. I had to get that cut out. I have a huge white gauze band aid on half my check and going up half my nose. I look like I have a broken nose or had some serious surgery. The area is smaller than my pinky nail, but the band aid makes it look huge. I have been working from home and avoiding the public until the band aid comes off (3 days).
They gave me some literature to read about this type of cancer. This type was most likely caused by my extreme sunbathing (sun burning) years ago. That’s what’s scary about it, it starts surfacing years after you do the damage. I can’t take back my early sun worshipping days, but I can be proactive now and take better care of my skin (it is one of my goals in 2010). I wish skin cancer had the media attention back then as it has now and we had the knowledge on sun products and sun exposure. I now tell my daughter and her friends about it in hopes they stop all the sunbathing at the beach. We live in Florida and it is pretty much the social thing for them to go do every weekend and during the summer. When we are young, we just don’t think too far in the future and we don’t think that some things will happen to us. I didn’t.
Hopefully my cheek heals good and any mark left I can cover with makeup (unless I find out something bad about using makeup all these years). I hope my experience helps my daughter think before heading to the beach and I hope it helps anyone else who reads this. It’s OK to put aside our vanity for the sake of our health.
Do we really want a tan in the big scheme of life especially when it comes back to haunt you years later?
Shari – I Want It All
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