This and that

Hangin' in there trying to stay sane. If that is ever really possible in my case--heheh. Still haven't heard back from the doc, but they supposedly just received the disk with the images on it today....soooo...
I know they have a melanoma meeting at Jeff every Tuesday morning too, so he may be waiting to get some other viewpoints from some of the other docs there, too.
Aside from that, I am just trying like hell to keep my mind off the more morbid thoughts. Far as I'm concerned, I don't even want to THINK about being "promoted" or for a more accurate word usage, demoted, to stage IV, but then again...Who the hell does?
Thinking ALOT lately about how little people really know about melanoma.
So many people think that is is "just" skin cancer, when that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. That is just a technicality. The luck, or lack thereof, of anatomical location. It ends up being lumped together with other skin cancers, when in fact, it can metastasize internally and ultimately kill a person. Most people that haven't been affected by it either themselves or by someone they care about, have no clue....

I keep hearing these commercials on the radio for Hollywood Tans that just infuriate me to no end...

Apparently, their latest gimmick to get people to come back in droves, over and over again, is to have this sweepstakes where the more you come in, the more chances you get to enter to win this sweet little Porsche convertible.
Lovely.
And here I sit, thinkin' that they oughta slap a Surgeon General's warning on every one of those coffin like contraptions. Much like a pack of cigs. Ironic the direct comparison that can be made between a tanning bed and a coffin.
Okay, to be fair, most people will not go on to develop melanoma, but still....
And to be even more fair, besides my fair complexion riddled with freckles and moles almost more numerous than the stars in the milky way being a huge risk factor, I did spend many days as a teen out baking in the sun either on my deck or on the beach with no sunblock, but I digress.

This time spent crispering up in the sun went on despite my mother's lecturing complete with wagging index finger pointed in my direction. She read an article in a magazine when I was 15 back in 1987 or so, about this "really scary skin cancer that starts in a mole" and shoved it in my face instructing me to read it. I just blew it off, after noticing that most of the people it discussed were over 50. Hmmm.

Never in a million years, did I even begin to imagine.

Come to think of it, when I was little, she would yank me back while my sister ran off with the other kids at barbecues at the lake, saying "Not you...You need sunblock on that fair skin of yours..."

I still remember the brand. Sundown. I think, if I remember correctly, that is was spf 15, which was HUGE back then in the late 70's.

One time, when I was six or so, I remember sitting in front of the TV watching Sesame Street, peeling my sunburnt skin off in sheets. Gross, I know....

Makes me cringe just thinking about it all now.

Anyway, I guess I have just been thinking more and more about finding a way to get the word out more about this cancer. Trying to come up with ways to raise awareness.

Also, seriously considering gathering up a couple of my friends to join up with me and do the Relay for Life this year. Pretty sure it is in June at one of the High Schools nearby. That would be great.

Just have this huge urge to do something proactive.

As for that nasty ol' CT scan....Hopefully, very soon, I will have only good news to post.