Barnacles...Awesome!

I went to see Dr. Bradley yesterday. I always have to force myself to call him because I have a huge paranoia of having him look at me. I have been going to him for about 20 years. My file with him is about six inches thick. I have bad skin. Not zitty skin, just moley skin. I have to thank my mother for that. She has A LOT of moles. The ones she hates most are the little hangy ones you get on your neck. She has a lot of those and has always insisted on wearing high neck blouses or turtlenecks to cover them up. The ones that have always scared me were the ones on her back.... great big black moles..at least that's what I thought they were until I talked to the doctor yesterday. I showed him this crusty thing on my shoulder and some on my side, he said "I hope this doesn't offend you, but those are called aging barnacles") I wasn't offended. I was actually elated! I usually hear "Oh that one doesn't look right...We'll want to take that one off...I don't like the looks of that one..I'm concerned about that one".....I could go on, I've heard them all. So to hear that they are harmless (although ugly and embarrassing) I was so happy I wanted to kiss him.

He said they can freeze them off (tackle about 6 at a time) which involves freezing, blistering, scabbing and healing...good times, so I'm going to do that.

I always have a little life review when I visit Dr. Bradley. I have not taken good care of my skin. When I was young, being tan was pretty important so my friends and I would go out to Hyrum dam about every afternoon and float on our floaties till we were the desired shade of browness. My skin is pretty fair so most of the time I would just burn...but eventually get a tan.

People didn't talk to much back then about skin cancer and I felt pretty invincible so I didn't give it a second thought.

In 1990, I noticed this mole on my leg that looked different. it was quite small but half of it was dark and the other half was light. I had a strong feeling that I should get it checked out right away so I went to see the dermatologist. He removed it, then about 3 days later, called me and told me it was melanoma. Probably about the scariest phone call I have ever received. I remember the blood all draining out of my head and having to sit down on the couch to finish the conversation with him. I went in 2 days later and had the surgery to remove it and all the tissue around it. He took quite a big area around the mole off, then sewed me shut. He called me a couple days later and said that they had looked at the tissue they removed and felt good that they had gotten it all out.

I have had a few other skin cancers removed, but they have caught them in very early stage.

I've been pretty diligent since then to check out all my moles. I go into the dermatologist to have him do a full body check regularly (let me just say that I have to go to my happy place to get through these...he is very thorough!)

Anyway, I understand the seriousness of the disease and I am eternally grateful for the blessing of being able to still be here! My greatest fear was that I wouldn't be able to be here to raise my children. K.C. was just a baby. Well it has been 19 years and the kids are all grown up. I'm so grateful for my life and for each new day I have on this earth and I try to never take for granted the blessing of good health. I made a lot of promises to God when I was going through this and I have tried my best to keep them.

So bring on the barnicles...I can take it!