But first, another visit to the dermatologist: seven new freeze blisters on my face plus a bloody spot below my eye where he cut out a divot to send for a biopsy. It’ll likely turn out to be a basal cell skin cancer and have to be cut out. More stitches, another scar. This will be number six. So far they’ve all been on my face or scalp, never anywhere else on my body, and we always check. So there’s that.
My father had several skin cancers removed during his life, and now my younger sisters are beginning to experience the same thing. Donna, like us, is fair-skinned, and she just got a call from her dermatologist: a sample they cut off the tip of her nose last week turned out to be skin cancer and she has to go in to have it cut out. Her dermatologist is sending her to a plastic surgeon, though, so she probably won’t be showing a scar. Meanwhile, I’m walking around looking like some seatbelt scofflaw who’s been through the windshield once or twice.
All this panic over Ebola. I hope my previous post didn’t sound panicky; I wasn’t so much concerned about the disease as with the human propensity to ignore or actively sabotage preventive procedures meant to keep such diseases out of the USA. Or maybe there weren’t any preventive procedures. It’s beginning to look that way, isn’t it?
Anyway, have we forgotten about AIDS? For the first few decades, AIDS had a 100% mortality rate. Compared to that, Ebola is weak tea. And how about TB? The only cure for TB, back in my mother’s day, was to go to a sanitorium and hope you got better. And contagious? I’m 67 years old and they still test me for TB every year just because my mother had it when I was four years old. There are lots of things more panic-worthy than Ebola.
Nevertheless, there’s a racist ooga-booga element to the Ebola scare, and I don’t expect the panic to die down anytime soon.
On to happier things: suddenly it’s nice outside and we can open the windows and turn off the air conditioner. Last night I actually had to close the sliding glass doors in our bedroom and living room because the air coming in was too cold. Luxury!
And here is possibly the happiest thing of all: doggie drive-thru!
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Click on the images to see ’em full sized on Flickr. And don’t say that didn’t cheer you up!
Paul,
As almost always agree with everything you say here–yes, that should worry you. 🙂 My dad suffered with skin cancer on his head because he did not wear hats to protect him from the sun. I see you in pictures all the time without a lid. By the time he died this past January, his head was like raw hamburger. Please start wearing a hat when you go outside!
Actually I do wear hats, I just take them off for photos. Also skull caps under my bicycle helmet, since bike helmets have all those holes in them. On the motorcycle I either wear a bandana over my lower face if I’m wearing a half-helmet, or I wear a full face helmet with a visor that keeps out UV rays. I’ve even been known to wear sunscreen! No matter what you do, though, it’s almost impossible to stay out of the sun. All of us who have it in our families need to take precautions.