The "I Will Have To Adjust My Tanning Procedure" Story

 The following story I wrote, but never posted before we were supposed to leave for St. Martin in 2019.....and now, here it is 2022 and we still haven't returned to our favorite vacation site.  Will we ever?  I decided instead of discarding this story, since we never made it back to St. Martin, to post it anyway since it may help you with decisions made about your own sun tanning decisions. 

 

Foreword:  It has a been over three years since we have traveled to our favorite Caribbean destination, Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  Will we be able to travel this coming Fall to the island of our dreams?  Only time, Covid and personal health will tell.  I do know that if we head back to the islands I must do a better job of protecting my skin while on the island or I most certainly will miss all future trips. 

It was an ordinary day.  Checking my new desk calendar when all of a sudden I realized I will  be going to see my dermatologist AFTER Carol and I return from our rescheduled visit to the island of St. Martin.  Now, that can't be a good move on my part.  I always try to make a visit to the dermatologist's office before we head on vacation so I won't have to listen to "the talk" about being in the sun too much.  And, while on the island of St. Martin, Carol and I spend most of the vacation relaxing on the beach.  We do make sure we are always covered with tanning oil as well as try to sit under the beach umbrella, but it's tough to not get tanned when the water looks so inviting and walks along the beach are part of vacation.  Over the past 20 years or so I have had various parts of my body operated on due to skin cancer.  So far none have been diagnosed as Melanoma, but I have had several Squamous Cell Carcinomas removed from my head and body as well as quite a few pre-cancerous cells frozen on my body.  My mother had part of her right forearm removed due to Melanoma, and being that it can be hereditary, I must be very careful to keep sunscreen on at all times.  40%-50% of Americans who live to the age of 65 will have skin cancer at least once.  The most common cancers are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.  Both are referred to as non-melanoma cancers and are almost always due to excess sun exposure.  Approximately one in 60 people will develop invasive cutaneous melanoma during their lifetime.  That cancer begins in the melanocytes or the pigment-producing cells in the skin.  And, most times it is due to excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation or sun exposure.  About 10% of those cases are inherited so being that my mom had melanoma, I have a greater chance to get it.   So, how do we get sunburned?  Well, going to the beach is probably the worst thing you can do.  It only stands to reason that the heat of the sun and the burning sensation that follows would be a good way to get sunburned.  The ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun damages DNA in skin cells and when that happens the epidermis is damaged which releases prostaglandins and cytokines which trigger dilation of blood vessels and inflammation at the site of damage.  

Squamous cell carcinoma on my ear.

It usually happens when you have been in the sun for more than four hours without sun tan lotion.  So, try and stay safe as Carol and I do.  Always cover yourself with sun tan lotion before you go to the beach and try and add a bit more after getting out of the water.  We always use a beach umbrella.  But, there is no way you will spend a day at the beach, or in our case three weeks at the beach, without getting a bit of suntan.  We know we will have a darker colored skin when our vacation is over, but we try to make sure we never suffer sunburn.  And...we are always told about it when we head to the dermatologist if our visit to the doctor's office is within a month or so after we return from our vacation.  

Squamous cell carcinoma on my face.

So far we have been lucky, with a series of minor operations needed from time to time to remove the damage we might have done to our skin.  So, we now try to be more aware of staying out of the sun while on vacation, but the sun tends to be more intense in the Caribbean than it is along the New Jersey shore.  Common sense would tell us to stay away from the beach, but life if always filled with choices, some being bad, and we choose to use our common sense the best we can and still be able to enjoy trips to the beaches in the Caribbean.  Life is short we realize, so we try not to overdue the sun worshipping so we can spend more years at the beach.  One way or another, my dermatologist has been my savior.  I just have to make my schedule so I'm not heading to visit with her too soon after a trip to the beach.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.