I received the dreaded phone call from my oldest sister this weekend. The conversation started like this “don’t freak out, but I have to tell you something”. Immediately I thought of her three beautiful kids, as any mom would, but she said they are all just fine and as rambunctious as ever.
It is her, she was just diagnosed with melanoma.
She hit a landmark birthday last year and decided to go in for a routine mole check because of all the years we spent lying out in the sun layering on the baby oil instead of sunscreen and trying to get that first good burn of the season in order to create a base for our upcoming summer tan.
Well, as we all have been saying it would, our recklessness caught up to us.
The dermatologist found several suspicious spots of which one area was basal cell carcinoma and another area of melanoma. I talk to my patients all the time about the risks of skin cancer and the importance of wearing hats and sunglasses to protect their eyes (the lower eyelid is the most common place on your face to develop skin cancer) but this week it will be in honor of my sister and all of us that didn’t take such great care of ourselves in the past. The doctors say my sister will be fine after she has a little more tissue removed to make sure they have clean margins, but I am going to use this as an opportunity to remind all of us that 80% of UV damage is done before we are 18 so get another layer of suntan lotion on before you go outside!
-Dr. Amy