Skin Cancer: Not a Laughing Matter

My original plan was to share my basal cell carcinoma experience in September when I was six-months post-MOHS, but there have been circumstances in my life that pushed me into writing about it now. Recently a dear friend was diagnosed with, and is treating, a melanoma on her cheek...cause of said melanoma...the sun. Over the past few years, I have lost two friends both the result of sun-related skin cancers. Me? Yes, in the last year I have had three basal cell carcinomas removed — one from my calf, one above an eyebrow and the most recent from my nose. The pix here is me today...healing but still feeling a bit battered, bruised, swollen and scarred but happy to be on this side of the treatment process. All of the pix in the post are documents of my surgery that I had in March and my recovery over the last four months. Warning, the pix that follow in this post are pretty graphic so if you are the least bit squeamish you might want to skip this entry.

Halloween, Cairns & Love

Sometimes in life, if we're lucky, we have the great fortune of sharing our path with a few incredible spirits. For the last thirty years I shared that path with Janice…the first twenty from a distance and the last ten in each other’s backyards as sisters, of sorts. For me, these pix of Beatrix and Janice’s Missy, celebrating Halloween in their own special way, will always remind me of the loving, silly and sometimes sad times I shared with Janice.

For the Love of Lavender Essential Oil -- Part Two

Out with the stitches…on with the lavender essential oil. Lucky you, I’ll spare all of you the gory details; but in a nutshell one week ago, I had a basal cell carcinoma removed from right above my brow and the stitches were removed on Friday. Before the doc removed those stitches he had to put many more in my calf where he had removed another skin cancer.