Basal Cell Cancer

Bay City, Texas

Weather: low 52 degrees, high 75 degrees, partly cloudy skies

When I was younger and stupid in a lot of ways (not that I don't still have my moments), I worked and played in the hot southern sun without a thought as to the consequences. Like basal cell skin cancer and worse. As a result of heredity giving me fair skin, the sun was harder on my skin than many people. The problems didn't start showing up until about 15 years ago when our family doctor at the time recognized some warning signs that allowed him to start treating the issue before it became overwhelming. Before that doctor retired, he removed a couple of places on my back that I wasn't aware of, as well as one on the left cheek of my face. The common thing about these removals were that they were minor surgery performed in the office.

After that doctor retired, we were fortunate in finding another family doctor in Glen Rose who was just as diligent in helping with skin cancer. The big differences in the doctors was their ages and the method of treatment. The doctor in Glen Rose was about 25 years younger than the one in Bay City, which may have made him more aware of different techniques, or more in favor of using different techniques. I had a place on the tip of my right ear that I wasn't aware of (who notices these things except doctors?) that the doctor in Glen Rose wanted me to have removed. He prescribed a cream that I applied to the area on the ear twice a day. Now, how in the world could a cream remove a basal cell cancer?

Apparently, the cream contains an acid type of substance. After about a week, the place on the ear began turning red, as though it was getting sunburned. A week after that, the ear was blood red in that spot. In another week (three weeks of treatment in all), the ear was really inflamed looking. People were asking me what was wrong with my ear. Within a week after stopping the treatment, the ear color was returning to normal, and the basal cell cancer was gone, and it hasn't returned after five years.

When we were in Glen Rose for our physicals in December, the doctor asked me to use the cream on a place on each arm as well as one on my right hand, all at the same time. Three weeks later, the treatment was finished, and the healing started. Now, here it is two months later, and I can hardly tell where the spots were.

Why am I writing about this topic today? Well, summer's on it's way, and maybe my story will help someone make the decision to try to protect their skin better than I did. If damage is already there, there is an alternative to surgery that is a lot less expensive.

Okay, enough of the public service message.

Today is my last day off before the outage starts at work. I can't remember ever having two days off before an outage started before, but I like it. At least I'll be rested for a couple of days, and then it'll be a long slog until the work is finished and we're outta here.

I was able to finish most of my need-to-do chores yesterday. Today, I finished the list I made up yesterday, which meant I went to the laundromat to wash our clothes and dumped our holding tanks. When I'm working, Carolyn usually does the laundry, but she's been sick, so I took care of it. Besides, I really don't mind washing clothes. I mean, how hard can it be to put the laundry in the machine and push buttons? It's not like we're having to beat it with a stick in a creek.

We met Lori and the grandkids at K-2 for lunch. Carolyn really didn't feel like it, but maybe it helped her to get out for a little while, and I know she enjoyed seeing everyone.

After lunch, it was back home and resting for a long outage. Only about a month to go and we're on the road again!

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Fowler, Colorado: A Great Place To Grow

Not all who wander lost.