Skin and the Sun
Someday I’m going to get skin cancer. I plan on it.
Not only do I plan on it, I plan for it.
Someday when I have skin cancer I want to be able to say “IT IS NOT MY FAULT!”
My mother and aunts have skin cancer and my mother thinks typically motherly thoughts about how foolish it was for them to bask in the sun as children, and tan their little hides as teens.
I know that I will get skin cancer even if I hide from the sun, but at least I will not have to feel like my mother. No, I will be self-righteous in my cancerous state.
So I wear sunscreen and don’t swim in the sun. I hide inside when my shadow is shorter than I am. I wear wide-brimmed hats, even though they do not actually protect my face.
And most of all, I wear a self-satisfied smirk because I know that even though I’m getting skin cancer, it is NOT my fault.
What do you do to prevent skin cancer?
I cannot for the life of me pull off a wide-brimmed hat. You look fabulous! I should have worn more sunscreen during my life guarding days and stayed away from the tanning bed (I was young and stupid!) because I fear those habits may bite me in the bum someday. I admire you for being prepared for the possibility of getting skin cancer and doing everything you can do to prevent it. I certainly hope you don’t get it!
I LOVE wide-brimmed hats! I wore one every day on my walk to and from work last spring/summer/fall. Added bonus to the sun protection factor: compliments from random strangers.
I’m naturally dark (well, olive) complected thanks to my ethnic heritage, however skin cancer runs in my family. If I get it, I’ll deal. If I don’t, I won’t think anything about it. Either, I’m going to hike and swim.
If I get it… I will have noone to blame but myself. I spent years as a kid tanning (because I hate being so light skinned and happen to tan well if I try), fell asleep for hours in the sun with baby oil on as a kid, misunderstood sunscreen and salt water as a teen and then forgot at the same beach and pulled it again a few years ago (second and fourth bad burns of my life), fell asleep on the beach in Zanz while on doxycyclene (burn #3). I’m absolutely horrible about remembering to wear sunscreen… or put it on my kids. Note: Beyond the fact that they don’t burn (thankfully, but I know its no help on this subject) I am all for UV protected swimwear because of this fact.. I know my short comings and try to counter act them
I love being in the sun… So yeah it would be all my fault. Thankfully it doesn’t seem to run as heavily in my family (despite similar activity) like other forms of cancer. It does worry me, but not as much as those…
I cannot pull off a wide-brimmed hat either. My brother had cancer removed from his back a few years ago. I am supposed to go and get a full body scan thing done at the dermatologist…but yeah…haven’t done that yet. Ugh.
I do wear sunscreen and all, but i just don’t worry about it that much, I guess.
Hmmm…skin cancer runs in my family, too. My parents go to a dermatologist yearly to have moles checked out. I’ll probably start doing that soon too. I don’t lay out in the sun. I try to remember sunscreen every day. I wear a t-shirt (no tank tops) when I’m going to be outside. And no tanning salons, ever!
Love the hat!
Hoooboy I’m bad about this one. I LOVE being tan, and my mom loves being tan. And I tan easily, so as a younger person it was a mission. I stretched out my college experience because the school was right on the beach and I knew I’d never again have the opportunity to live so close to the ocean and go to the beach everyday. And get tan.
That said, I’m more careful now, but I like to ride with my sunroof open and sit in the sun. It’s about time I started wearing sunscreen.
I’ve had a skin cancer already. I suspect i have more to come.
I do my best to avoid the sun. I wear sunscreen, even indoors, and reapply regularly. I try to avoid going outside unneccessarily.
But i see myself getting more relaxed about the whole thing. I never got around to replacing the bottle of sunscreen in my car, which I just now is going to result in me getting stuck outside at some outdoor event and not having any sunscreen to put on.