Dear 16-year-old me… Lying out in the sun for an hour your first time out was stupid. You’re a fair skinned girl and won’t get a golden tan. What you will end up getting are 3-inch diameter blisters Everywhere your tiny bikini doesn’t cover; And you’ll be planting the seeds for future melanomas. […]
Today kicks off Skin Cancer Awareness month, a month dedicated to increasing public awareness of the importance of skin cancer prevention, early detection, and the treatment of all types of skin cancer. I had to cancel my biannual full-body check with my dermatologist in early November due to a last minute trip out of town. […]
On this last day of Skin Cancer Awareness Month, I’m reminding myself and my readers to make every day a day in which you’re aware of any changes on your skin, no matter how small they seem to be. It is because I noticed an odd looking spot on my lower leg and had it examined immediately, that I […]
The second worst sunburn I ever got was during the spring of my junior year as a student at Virginia Tech. I wasn’t running, but I spent the day at the track volunteering at the Virginia Special Olympics Track and Field Games. I was out in the sun the entire day – without sunscreen. At […]
Happy Skin Cancer Awareness Month! To celebrate, I visited my dermatologist for my twice-yearly skin check today. I have a great dermatologist. He’s funny and we laugh the entire time I’m in his office, but far more importantly, he’s extremely thorough. Today he spent thirty minutes checking and double checking my skin. I know my […]
Just for the heck of it, I put little red dots on this body map to represent where I’ve had some of my basal cell carcinomas and my melanoma removed. Can anyone decipher the code? I thought about drawing lines from each dot to the next to see if there were any subliminal messages like, […]
Twice a year I see my dermatologist, Dr. Ha, for a full body skin and lymph check. I’ve been seeing him since about 2000 after my mom suggested I have a dermatologist look at a flaky place over my lip. It was pre-cancerous and he froze it off, but in the process of the examination […]
This morning’s TKO Melanoma 5K was a ton of fun; well, except for while I was running which was hard work! This second annual race was in memory of Theresa O’Conner, a loving wife and mom, who lost her battle with melanoma in 2012. Running this race yearly and spreading the word about melanoma is […]
It all started when I was about sixteen years old… I wanted a beautiful golden tan instead of my pasty white skin. I decided to take care of the problem one Sunday afternoon. I put on my bikini, grabbed a beach towel, a kitchen timer, and headed out into our back yard for a boring […]
May is Melanoma Awareness Month and throughout the month I’ll be posting various articles, stories, pictures, and links that relate to skin cancer prevention and early detection. Some of the articles I have planned are (Note: edited to include links): Confessions Of A Tanning Goddess That Odd Looking Spot Sure Doesn’t Look Like Melanoma What […]
This morning two of my Cruiser friends and I ran in the TKO Melanoma 5K. This race was in memory of Theresa Kay O’Conner, a loving wife and mom who lost her battle with melanoma last fall. This race was very near and dear to me as a melanoma survivor, and also because I lost […]
Twice a year I visit my dermatologist… Well actually it’s usually four times a year because I almost always have to go back and get a basal cell removed after my doctor calls with my biopsy results. You see, I’ve had one melanoma and 43 basal cell carcinomas removed in the last 15 years. Today […]
