Unlucky old sun
Sep 23, 2014, 2:32 AM | Updated: 7:04 pm
When I moved to Arizona, how was I supposed to know that sunshine was my enemy?
I’ve never liked cold weather and even Sonoran summers don’t bother me. I always loved feeling the warmth of the sun on my face… until a doctor noticed a tiny spot on my forehead.
When he called for a biopsy, I let him know that wasn’t necessary because I never bask by the pool, I wear a hat and use sun block. I’m a vigilant light-skinned Irishman.
He asked me if I did all that when I was 11, because that’s when the skin cancer could have started. I was stunned.
There was no sun block when I was 11. When I was 11, the sun had just been invented.
But the biopsy was positive. The surgery removed the basel cells, and I breathed a sigh of relief… as I did when it happened on my nose, my ear and, last week, just below my eye for the fifth time.
I’m telling you this because you’re exposed to the same sunshine I am. When you garden, when you play golf, whenever you’re outside, cover up everything that’s skin. Otherwise, I have the name of a good doctor.
I’m Pat McMahon.