Lesson Learned

Tanning is so not worth it! From the ages of about 13-21 I almost never wore sunscreen, tanned all summer long and even visited those awful fake tanning beds a few times each winter. I knew this was all bad, but I thought myself invincible and never really gave it a second thought. I was half-Mexican after all, and I tanned easily and rarely burned. I figured I was very low risk so why not enjoy the sunshine as much as I wanted? Turned out I was wrong!

Maybe a year ago, I noticed a flat dark freckle on my leg that looked different than all the rest but just shrugged it off. In September, I went to the dermatologist for my first ever skin exam. I really went in to have a wart removed from my hand but they said I needed a skin exam since I'd never had one so I agreed. Turned out the doctor was a little concerned about the "mole" as he called it and wanted to cut it off to biopsy it. "Ok, sure, whatever," I said. They cut it out and told me to call back in 2 weeks for the results. I honestly didn't care at all about it and completely forgot to call back. 3 weeks after my appointment, they called me to say that there were actually a lot of atypical cells around the mole... the kind that lead to skin cancer in 5-10 years if not removed. So I needed to come back in for a minor surgical procedure where they'd cut out more skin around the area where the mole had been "just to be on the safe side."

At this point, I finally started to take it seriously. And so on Friday morning, I went back in to the dermatologist. They ended up cutting out (what I considered to be) a huge chunk of flesh from my leg and I left with 3 stitches. He told me to keep off my feet as much as possible to reduce swelling and pain. Well, as a busy mother of 2 crazy toddlers, that's pretty much impossible. I think I overdid it on Friday by running errands all afternoon and my leg was pretty swollen and killing me by the time I got home. Ever since, I haven't been able to walk or stand for more than an hour before my leg starts throbbing. Once that happens, I have to sit with my leg elevated for about a half hour before the pain will go away. This is easier said than done. I never realized how much I am on my feet until this weekend! I sit down for a few minutes here and there throughout the day but rarely for more than 10 minutes at a time. Somebody is always needing help, needing to be disciplined, needing a snack... there's always cleaning to be done, a meal to be prepared, errands to run, etc. We moms work very hard!

Today is much better, thankfully, and I was finally able to clean the house during the boys' naptime without any pain in my leg. But to think all this, and any future mole removals, could have been avoided had I just worn sunscreen or not used tanning beds. And this was the best case scenario! The doctor told me there was a good chance I could have had skin cancer by the time I was 30 if I hadn't had the mole removed! He said he's putting me on his "watch list" and that I had better keep getting annual skin exams to catch any more trouble spots. Yikes! You won't catch me outside without sunscreen anymore! Not to mention that 90% of all signs of aging for non-smokers are caused by sun damage. Hmm, do I want to be a tan 35-year-old with leathery skin, wrinkles and skin cancer? No thank you! I'm perfectly happy being a pale 25-year-old! And I'm thankful to have learned my lesson sooner rather than later!