November 8, 2012

Dr. Mc, moi and Sweetness at Ashley's wedding last Saturday.

My older brother was diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer in 2003, and died in 2004. Since then, I have been careful with skin lesions, which are defined as growths or patches of the skin that don't resemble the area around them. I'll show them to my Internist and he normally calls my lesions Actinic Keratosis (AK). I've learned that untreated AKs can advance to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the second most common form of skin cancer. It's slow-growing, nonmelanoma skin cancer that is very common among older people (check) with light-colored skin (check), green or blue eyes (check), and blond or red hair (check).

At my last visit to the Internist, he suggested I have a lesion on my chest examined by a dermatologist. And since I've met my out-of-pocket insurance costs for the year, I made an appointment and saw a dermatologist today. She froze about 15 AK lesions on my arms, back and chest, and is concerned with a spot on my left arm. I have to go back to see her in a month so she can check the spot to make sure it hasn't advanced to SCC. If freezing it doesn't make it go away, she biopsy it. At that time she is also going to check other parts of my body for AKs. In the meantime, every place she froze with nitrogen is now red and blistering. Thank goodness I didn't have anything on my face because what I can see on my arms looks nasty and every place stings. Let's see, what long-sleeve blouse can I wear tonight?

Today I'm creating nothing for the second day in a row. I just took some Advil to see if it will help with the stinging. I'm going to have a short (?) nap and hope the stinging is gone when I awake.