I can not begin to tell you how important it is to use sunscreen but to make sure that your loved ones do as well. My husband and I both grew up in the south. We spent summers out in the sun. My husband at 18 started workng in pool construction. He never took the time to use sunscreen. He was in newly constructed pools, concrete everyday. He was the tile and waterfall artist in Dallas. He changed his career path in his mid 30.s. About that he developed a spot on his back, We went to the doctor, he said is was a hemangiona, a place where the blood vessels had grown together. no worry, no problem. Well the area kept growing, I could not get him back to the doctor.
It got so large that I could not find bandages to cover it as it would bleed quite often. Finally back to the doctor. It was in reality a basal cell carcinoma. By that time it was as large as the size of the palm of my hand. Sent to a specialist in MOHS surgery. It was cut out but very deep, he came home with drainage tubes in his back. They said it was fine basal cell cancer does not metastizise.
Fast foward a few years, his right arm started to swell and drip fluid. There was a small lump under his arm. They thought infection but antibiotics did not clear it. Sent for outpatient surgery to have lump removed. After surgery doctor came out said, I don't now what it is but his lung Xray shows tumors in both lungs.
Biopsy was sent all over the country, MD Anderson, Cleveland Clinic, Sloan Kettring, Mayo Clinic. After six weeks they said it was Metastatic Basal Cell Carcinoma, only about100 cases in the last 100 years, no cure, fatal. And so the beginning of the end started. he fought for five years when they had told us just a year. Just saying thinsg go wrong, melanoma is not the only skin cancer that can take your life, it is becoming more frequent, pay attention, if something is wrong with your skin, go to the doctor or more than one if needed.