As many of you know, in <January of 2010> I was diagnosed with Melanoma. Since that time, I've learned a great deal about myself, and about skin cancer in general. I've become a bit of a skin cancer pro, which leads me to my next sentence. Not only have I become a pro, I'm trying to become pro-active in doing what I can to raise awareness about skin cancer. For reasons I don't quite understand skin cancer sits very low on the awareness list. I'm thinking that because other cancers take more lives, skin cancer is not really a priority until it happens to you. I also believe that the general populace is NOT ready to give up their sun kissed skin. In spite of everything we know about Melanoma, Basil Cell Carcinoma and skin cancer in general, people still type, or say, things like:
- I feel asleep in the sun.
- I accidentally got sun burned.
- I forgot to wear sun screen.
- I was on vacation.
- I was working on my tan.
- Silly me, it was cloudy outside.
- I'm not really sun burned. This is how I get tan.
- I had one too many beers and spaced out.
- It was a nude beach, I had no choice.
- I didn't know that sun screen washes off in the water.
Does all of that sound familiar? Thought so. I've used a few of them myself in, what seems to be, a different lifetime. Every excuse I have ever thrown out there seems so stupid now. I mean really, the idea that skin cancer couldn't happen to me was a special kind of stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Did I mention Stupid?
Before I digress let me get back on point, and I do have a point. I want you. I want your family. I want your friends. I want your help. So what exactly is it that I want? I want everyone who reads this post both here, and out in cyberspace, to assist me in sharing the real life experiences that I've been posting on a public Face Book page. That's right. I've taken my skin cancer public - photos, videos and all. Every treatment, every surgery, all of it. It's all out there on the Face Book page with my sole intent being to raise awareness with nothing more than my willingness to be candid and open about my experiences thus far. It's a brave new world we live in. Time for a brave new way of doing things. I'm not sponsoring anything nor am I selling anything.
The page on Face Book is a test run for me. If it looks as if I can actually make a difference, on a human to human level on a bigger scale, I'll be taking The Lovely Wife dot com out of her parking spot and using it in way that benefits those who need help, or wish to be keep informed about such an important topic by someone who's there, and has been there. But, before I do anything I really need to know that the energy it takes to keep abreast of such a project will not be lost on a society that has become so stuck on their tans they can't bring themselves to like a skin cancer page, listen, or even face the reality of what they're doing to their bodies. For me, time is of the essence.
Now, before you pop over to check out <Skin Cancer. Wage Your War> you need to know that it contains extremely graphic images of skin cancer. So graphic, in fact, that I put an age restriction on the page. The images are not for little eyes, the faint of heart or persons who are easily made queasy by all things graphic. So, please, don't come back here and say I didn't warn you. My response to that will be along the lines of ---> Maybe you shouldn't be speed reading a post that has the word cancer in it. I even put that in bold so you wouldn't miss it <--- Okay. I'm done. You can laugh about that nude beach thing now, I know you've been holding that in. Roar :)
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