NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — While I do not wish to make anyone afraid to enjoy the outdoors - especially since I have spent so much time there myself and wouldn’t trade it for anything - I would add a word of caution that most young people never consider: Protect yourself from the sun.
It may not be “cool” to wear long sleeves, a hat or even sun screen, but it could save you from having to deal with skin cancer as you grow a bit older. And while most may not take skin cancer all that seriously, it leads to surgeries, scars and, if not caught early, could lead to death.
Unless I was at the pool or the beach, I was never one to go shirtless; but I did spend a lot of time outdoors and often without a hat - after all, I’ve always had a thick head of hair, and hats can make a fellow hot and sweaty. Though I enjoyed swimming when I was young, the bulk of my outdoor time involved work - mowing grass, driving trucks, patrolling in a police cruiser and the like. As a result of not protecting myself when I was younger, I now make regular visits to the doctorand seem to have regular surgeries to remove spots of cancer - mostly from my face.
Most of the cancer has been basal cell carcinoma, the least invasive of the three major cancer types, but I’ve also had melanoma, which, if not caught early, may spread throughout the body and become fatal. But even the basal cell variety requires surgeries to remove it, and that leaves scars.
Sometimes, because of proximity to other organs such as the eyes or nose, the cancer requires specialized Mohs surgery - a surgery in which cut-away tissue is examined under the microscope during the surgical procedure to be sure all the cancer is removed without taking the usual margins and waitingfor lab results.
I’ve had one Mohs surgery and skin grafting for cancer near my left eye and am being scheduled for another to remove a spot of cancer on my nose.
I still enjoy the outdoors, but I do try to protect myself from the sun’s harmful rays by wearing longsleeved shirts with collars and putting on a hat to keep the sun off my face.I only wish I had started doing so a long time ago, when I was a child, teenager, and young adult in my 20s and 30s. Perhaps, then, I wouldn’t have had so many issues with skin cancer in my 40s and 50s and I wouldn’t be making regular visits to a dermatologist for examinations and surgeries.
Even though I on occasion write about it and sometimes even explain a scar or two, most young people will have to learn this lesson the hard way. Guys will be out on the practice fields this summer shirtless and with closeshaved heads - because it’s “cool,” of course - and coaches will let them. Girls will be tanning outdoors and in the tanning salons - for appearances’ sake - and nobody will tell them what it might do to appearances in 10 or 20years. Cops wearing hot ballistic vests to protect themselves from the possibility of a bad guy’s bullet will shave their heads and wear no head covering, oblivious to the damage being done to them every day by the sun’s rays.
I could go on, but I won’t. Just don’t be shocked if I stop sometime, show you a bandage or scar on my face and suggest you cover up while you enjoy the outdoors.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by email at rmoll@ nwaonline.com.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 05/09/2012