Here Comes The Sun...

Summer is here. There is nothing that makes me happier and more content than the feel of warm sun on my skin. A day at the beach sitting in the sun, swimming in the ocean, eyes closed hearing the waves crash and the occasional plane flying by pulling a giant sign advertising some summertime fun that is going on. When my kids were small we spent all day everyday going to the beach. Tan, barefoot and blond is how I will always think of my kids during some of the happiest times of our lives.


With all of this also comes the responsibility you have to yourself and your families to protect yourself against the dangerous UV rays that cause sunburn and produce skin cancer. 
I was in high school working at a cafe on the weekends when a woman who I was waiting on pulled me aside before she left to tell me that the mole on my neck looked suspicious to her and I needed to get it checked out. I wasn't really phased by her words. I was seventeen and there was probably a keg party that weekend that needed my full attention. I was young and immortal and words like 'suspicious' didn't scare me.


A few months later I was out on the east end of Long Island visiting my Dad from Boston for the summer and he made an appointment for me to see a dermatologist. I went in had the mole removed and didn't think another thing about and still wasn't concerned when my doctor called my dad personally and asked him to bring me back in. We went back and we sat in his office and he looked me in the eye and said, "Your mole is malignant. It is melanoma and it means its cancer." My dad got very upset and I was still clueless so I was embarrassed that he was getting emotional. "Dad, its fine, I'm not going to die, right?" I looked to the doctor to back me up to my weepy horribly embarrassing father and he said "You need to see a surgeon." (UH Hello, you are supposed to just simply say NO!)


So I went back to Boston where we were living at the time and had surgery on my neck where the mole had been at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The surgeon did a great job and although for a long time the red line on my neck was a constant reminder that my relationship with one of the best free things in life, was going to have to change. Luckily my lymph nodes were clear and they had caught it in time before it had metastasised. I go every six months for mole checks and usually have something removed and biopsied. Sometimes its nothing and sometimes its a little more but I am on top of it. My kids all go for mole checks and they all have had things looked at, and some have had things removed already. I am always confident that we are on top of things and there will be nothing to worry about because I am pretty sure I would blow my dad's teary eyes out of the water if the Doctor ever told me something was wrong with one of my kids and it was something that I could have prevented with sunscreen.


Yesterday I had a Mohs operation on a squamous cell spot right under my left eye. The plastic surgeon I went to did an amazing job and I am keeping his card on file for future reference if you know what I mean!!


I wear hats, sunscreen and sit under umbrellas. I still go to the beach, run outside, garden in the yard and play outdoor sports but I am aware of the dangers and I am protected. Skin cancer kills someone every hour. (I just looked that up, yikes) Keep yourselves and the people you love protected. it is so completely preventable.