A Very Important Reminder....

I grew up in Florida and sun bathed for years. I used Hawaiian Tropic Royal which had virtually no sunscreens. A few years ago, I had a big bump on the side of my face that got larger and larger (thank god it was during Covid when we were wearing masks). It was benign but my dermatologist had to remove it. It left kind of a hole for a while. She worked on it again and now it's just a small gash that no one would really notice.

I have a couple of bumps on my leg and shoulder that haven't gone away. I'll be visiting the dermatologist again soon.
 

IKE said:
Some may recall that I've had to have my nose operated on four times since retiring in 2015, three of the times I had to be put under and have skin cancer removed from my nose and tissue taken from behind my ears to repair the areas on my nose (skin grafts) and I can't begin to count how many that I've had both big and small (marble to golf ball size) areas surgically removed on my back, neck, shoulders and chest plus countless places frozen that the doc felt that they could become cancerous if left alone....I go every 90 days for a check and am due again this coming Friday.

Luckily all of mine so far (knock on wood) have been basal cells....my advice is go to a dermatologist for a full body check at the very least yearly or every six months if possible.
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Best of luck Friday!
 

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The little town next to the one where I grew up was populated by a lot of Holland Dutch people. They were mostly blond and blue eyed. Many of the men worked on the bay, fishing and clamming. I heard that skin cancer was common among them.

I had a basal cell carcinoma on my back at age 32. The doctor said it was from sun exposure years earlier. It looked ugly but they removed it without incident. I am fair skinned and never really enjoyed sun bathing.
 
Ted01 said:
If I die of skin cancer, feel free to come laugh at my funeral.
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I personally wouldn't laugh because if you do die that way, it'll be a horribly painful death (as I pointed out above about my uncle who died from it), pain that would be much worse than your annoyance at the "alarmist stuff." So, that explains why the experts who know darn well about this stuff and have personally watched patients suffer horribly from it take the "alarmist" approach about it.
 
Ted01 said:
.. I just find all the alarmist stuff annoying.
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You can't easily choose what you find annoying or pleasant, but it's a lot easier to choose what you invest in or engage with.
You appear to be quite invested in this thread , are you being masochistic?
 
I had to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from my nose a couple of months ago. It was MOHS surgery and they had to do it three times to get all the bad stuff. Then, they had to reconstruct my nose. It ended up looking worse than I hoped. I made the mistake of asking to look at it before they did the reconstruction and I screamed and dropped the mirror, it scared me so badly. Nobody faints when they see my schnozz, but it's definitely more W.C. Fields than Snow White.

That was probably the result of my misbegotten years of getting deep, dark tans. My arms and legs have spots all over them from the tanning, but luckily they're all benign. I'm now on a six-month dermatologist visit schedule for the rest of my life, so every six months I'll get to worry about them finding something else. Payment for my misadventures in the sun.

The Spousal Equivalent is a melanoma survivor from 20 years ago. He has a foot-long scar on his leg where they had to keep going to the next lymph node until they got a clear margin. He has been going to the dermatologist every six months and every time they cut one, two or three places off him, sometimes deeply. It's not pretty, but it's necessary.
 
Yep @Jace my father was a redhead ..I’ve had dozens burned off ..cut out … and having Cornish heritage I have to see a skin dr every 6 months …I’ve just had a biopsy on one on my arm waiting for results ,however it became really sore a few days ago so I had to see a local doctor and he seemed to think it’s a cat scratch bacteria infection and given me some really expensive cream called mupircin (that’s not on the discount meds list) to apply till I see the skin doctor for results
 
Rakaia said:
It's approaching 30 years since melanoma robbed us a very talented Kiwi, John Britten who transformed an old stables into a spectacular home then went on to build a world beating motorcycle.
I saddens me to think what he may have achieved if he had lived a full term.

Britten - Backyard Visionary | Television | NZ On Screen
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I known of 4 who died from having a tiny spot on their arms or legs that have turned out to be deadly Melanomas
I had taken one off the back of my leg that the dermatologist said was a cats whisker off of being a melanoma
I had no idea it was there
@Rakaia
 
My wife and I suntanned almost every weekend when we were young, and were out in the sun for hours at the lake. I was probably in the sun more than she was, but there was a lot of sun exposure for both of us. Somewhere in my mid forties, I had a skin cancer on my back removed, then there were more, and I've now lost count of how many. She never got even one.

I know what they look like, even the small ones, so I don't just go to the dermatologist for them to check me all over, but if I see anything suspicious, I make an appointment right away.
 
Never really been a sun worshiper except in my teens in the 60s as we tended to do back then (even using lard as sunscreen!). And, on occasions I lay about in the sun when we went abroad on hols.
I've always been an outdoorsy person tho - boating, walking, rambling, gardening etc.

Had two cancers removed from face, one on my cheek 12 yrs ago, and one about 6 weeks ago in the middle of my eyebrow (still healing) and also one on my upper arm (now healed).

The one removed in my eyebrow still has some tiny bit left under the skin, so offered re-excision or clinical monitoring. I opted for monitoring. Have to check every month for signs of anything recurring on the surface, and will be reviewed for the next 12-18mths. Next appt January. I'm not worried about it.

Never heard of it myself, but according to the Dermatologist I'm a 'Fitzpatrick skin type scale 1-2', fair, burns easily, no real tanning, green eyes' - so checked it out:
Fitzpatrick Skin Types: What Is Yours and What It Means.
 
Rakaia said:
You can't easily choose what you find annoying or pleasant, but it's a lot easier to choose what you invest in or engage with.
You appear to be quite invested in this thread , are you being masochistic?
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I’m not here to build a narrative, I’m just passing through.... and I don't need an analyst... tyvm.
 
officerripley said:
I personally wouldn't laugh because if you do die that way, it'll be a horribly painful death (as I pointed out above about my uncle who died from it), pain that would be much worse than your annoyance at the "alarmist stuff." So, that explains why the experts who know darn well about this stuff and have personally watched patients suffer horribly from it take the "alarmist" approach about it.
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Okay... I'm sorry that my opinion offends you. Truly!

How about, I keep mine; you keep yours?
 
The sun shirts that are rated with an SPF50 tend to be quite hot. I have Columbia and Eddie Bauer. It‘s easier than wearing products on my arms.

As a kid I did whatever the in-know kids did. They said to slather up with baby oil and get a base tan, aka a burn. What an idiot. I react to the sun. Since I had Mohs surgery on my scalp, I’ve been warned to use protection. I use a 50+ sunscreen year round on my face. The ship has long sailed on wrinkles.
 
Had my 90 day checkup at the dermatologist this morning and he froze three places that he felt are not now but could develop into cancer later if left alone....he did find one place on my forehead that he's 99.99% sure is cancer that he went ahead and did a biopsy on and as soon as the lab results come back confirming his feelings I'll have it taken off.
 
My late father at age 14, Camp Fire Accident that caused a significant burn to his right leg.
In recalling(in my childhood), he applied 'special burn cream' every morning, but in his late 40s, he started to experience an excruciating pain in the affected area of his right leg(behind his knee cap).
He underwent Emergency Surgery as medical crew in the hospital determined
'serious skin cancer.' The hospital was farther away from the region where we lived. The surgery was successful, but the swelling and pain started after the surgery. He did not seek for the follow-ups as having known or his 'just instinct' that those discomfort would dissipate and worked as a normal and healthy father, not being sick for. His skin cancer never returned. That was around year of 1950.

In his late 70s, he also underwent 'Ulcer' surgery in his stomach and was successful.
He lived as a very healthy and active life until at age 93.
 

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