Hard Day

A few weeks ago, I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR when they had the President of the National Dermatology Association speaking.

He talked about summer skin care and how to best use sunscreens and I found it highly informative. I am talking about, I had a police car behind me for about four minutes with lights flashing and I didn't even NOTICE it.

He talked about what SPF we should be using, how the whole system is under review, how much sunscreen we SHOULD use:

Just FYI, a SHOTGLASS full is the proper application size for an adult. In a week at the beach, you should easily clear through a bottle and half of sunscreen. Just saying.


So, I was realizing that I am not currently taking care of my skin and well, I have NEVER taken care of my skin. It is the benefit of having olive skin. But, it is engaging in risky behavior and then he talked about skin cancers and the different types and I started to freak.

The next day I made an appointment to see my dermatologist.
Which I saw yesterday. He wasn't worried about the things I was. He, of course; was worried about other spots. So he removed them.

And he spoke to me about my dark skin. Which is dark because I just listened to this program and I spent the whole summer in the sun, at the pool, the beach and the lake with my kids.

So now I have been spanked AND scared straight.
I have to wait to see if what he removed has anything scary in it.

I followed up scary appointment #1 with a run of the mill dentist appointment.
They cleaned my teeth and took the Penaflex x-rays and spent a good deal of time looking at them.
They asked me a lot of questions about if I was experiencing any sensitivity on the right side of my mouth.
I assumed that I had a cavity or something.

After a bit, they divulged that I have some sort of growth going on in my mouth.
They don't know what it is.
They are sending my films to an oral surgeon for review.
I am understandably nervous about what this is.

It could be nothing.
It could be something.

I just have to wait and see.
Fantastic.

Oh, and my dentist's office is closed today.
So, I just have to wait to even call them until Thursday.
Sweet Mercy.

In case you want to listen to the NPR podcast or read the story about it, here it is: NPR
And here is another article about using tanning beds and how they are as bad as ingesting arsenic. Seriously.
Citizen Times I am sure that is not a citizen-times article but something from the Associated Press, but I'm being lazy.