How I became a hat guy...
I was never much of a hat guy. I’d have occasions when I would wear one but it was much more common to hear me utter the words “don’t mess with the ‘do’ dude."
That changed this past January, when I found out I had skin cancer.
Before I go any further, I don’t want sympathy. The truth is I’m a lucky guy. First, I had basal cell carcinoma, one of the most treatable forms of cancer there is. And second, my reaction to the treatment was far better than what the majority people suffer through.
For most, the pain is far greater than the worst sunburn you’ve ever had. For me, it was closer to that really bad sunburn. Though if they had been making a zombie movie around here the last couple of months I think I would have been a shoe-in for a leading role… no makeup required.
May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. I’m writing this in the hope I can get the message out to a friend, a friend of a friend, or maybe someone with whom I have no connection at all, so they understand the choice they make when they have unprotected sun.
Guess what, the sun is a carcinogen. I never thought about it that way before but there it is, 90 percent of skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to the sun and too much time in tanning beds. That makes them carcinogens.As for me, it was more Mr. Sun though I wouldn’t be entirely forthcoming if I didn’t admit to using a tanning bed a number of times years ago before a winter trip to Florida or some other southern location.
My cancer came more from the accumulation of working in Iowa's fields and in construction back in college, a lot of years as a runner and all that time I spent helping with my daughter’s softball teams and simply being outside on a lot of great summer days.The bottom line is, quite simply, it was my fault. I love the sun, I love being outside on a 90 degree day, and I wasn’t always really smart about it.
It started with a tiny lump on the side of my face, less than the size of a pencil eraser. I’d wake up in the morning and it would be bleeding, and has time went on it continued to get worse. I went to the physician’s assistant and she immediately sent me to the dermatologist. He took one look at it and said there’s a 50/50 chance that’s cancer.
A biopsy there and three others across my face confirmed what he said.
Fortunately, only the one spot was cancerous.
A week after the biopsies he removed those stitches and did the surgery to remove the lump and give me that nice two-inch scar I now have in front of my ear. If someone now asks how I got it, “You know, the first rule of fight club….”
Add another week. Those stitches were removed and the doctor then froze eight spots across my face that looked like they might also become a problem. It’s the same kind of freezing they do if you have a wart or mole removed with that liquid nitrogen stuff.
Another week goes by. If you’re counting, that’s three weeks of stitches and burn marks all across my face. Then I started the chemo.
Funny thing is I didn’t think of it as chemo. It comes in an ointment form that you apply to your skin twice a day, morning and night. The chemicals in the ointment attack the pre-cancerous cells, hopefully destroying those evil things. If you don’t have pre-cancerous cells you can apply it and nothing happens. When you do, things get pretty ugly.
My daughter even made the comment to me that it’s kind of like chemo. I hadn’t thought of it that way and then, a week later, the doctor made an offhand comment to me, “Well, this is chemotherapy.”
I guess it is, you’re using chemicals to attack cancer, that’s pretty much what chemo is.
The treatment is supposed to last three to four weeks but the doctor stopped the treatment under my eyes and around my nose after just a week. It reacted so quickly in that area there was no reason to continue to burn it even more.
The area on my forehead and sides of my face he continued for two more weeks.
Once the treatment was completed I applied a steroid cream for another couple of weeks to help with healing.
All together my face was carved on and pretty ugly looking for probably 10 weeks. I mention that, again, not for sympathy but because I want to make sure people understand the fate they are tempting when they decide they want that perfect tan.
I finished the last of the chemo on February 29 and my face still has redness in it that hasn’t completely healed. I have to admit I’m wondering if it will ever go away. And that my friends is how I became a hat guy.
Once you have skin cancer you have a 75 percent chance you will get it again. For most people it really isn’t a question of “if” it will come back again, it’s “when” will it come back again… and again.
The choice is yours.For more information about skin cancer check out these websites.
http://www.skincancer.org/
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/skincancer/
http://www.standup2cancer.org/
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