Our skin in the largest organ in our bodies. It protects our bodies and holds everything in place, and yet, it is in many cases probably the least taken care of part of our bodies. I don’t know why, but it seems we tend to take our skin for granted. I know I did… at least until I was diagnosed with skin cancer on my nose.
I had had the strange bump on my nose for years. It started out as a little pimple looking thing that just never went away. Over time it grew, and although I had been able to manage it and even sometimes shrink it slightly with essential oils, it had finally reached a point where it no longer shrank, and just sat there looking hideous. It was larger than it had ever been, and after being ridiculed by a client I had been interpreting for, I found myself in the dermatologist’s office with my best friend, hoping it was not cancer.
The dermatologist walked in, took one look at me, and said she was certain it was basal cell carcinoma and needed to be removed immediately. There was no sugar coating, nor preparation, just harsh terrifying words that flew forth from her lips and hit me like a sledge hammer. Amidst the flashes of panic in my mind, I saw all the times I had opted out of sunscreen, wanting to “get darker” instead. I thought of all the times I had gone to the beach, allowing myself to burn and tan instead of taking proper care of my precious skin. I didn’t question “why me”. I knew exactly how I got here. This was a direct result of me not taking care of my skin.
The dermatologist proceeded to cut it off immediately and sent it for a biopsy. A week later I got the results confirming that she was right. Again, there were no comforting words and there was no coddling. The confirmation came via phone call and I remember feeling numb as I hung up. Again I immediately saw all the times I had gone to the beach. I remembered every sunburn I had ever gotten. I thought about all the times I had gone out of my way to get more sun. I also remembered the timeless words of an elderly woman that I met on a train long ago while traveling from New York to Boston. We chatted throughout the train ride, and I had shared with her how I loved the ocean. She warned me then to be careful. She had battled skin cancer as a result of her lifelong adventures on the beach. I remember thinking “surely I wouldn’t get skin cancer. She just must not have been careful enough. I would be more careful.” Clearly, I wasn’t careful enough. As I sat there crying while terror coursed its way through my veins, all I could do was pray that it had not spread.
God answered my prayers. Thankfully, they were able to do a Moh’s procedure and get clean borders without any other treatment. While I’m grateful that the treatment was relatively simple, it was not in any way easy. I can honestly say it was one of the most excruciating things I’ve ever experienced. My nose was basically filleted open and cut up and scraped and tested until there was no more cancer. Then the skin was pulled tightly to seal it all up again in order to rebuild my nose without plastic surgery. Excruciating is the only word that comes to mind when I think about that experience. Below are the before, during and after photos. I was awake for the entire procedure and because the tissue is so thin in that area, the numbing agent doesn’t last long, so they constantly had to inject me with more.
In the first picture below, you can see the large lump that was at that time out of control and growing larger despite my efforts to shrink it with various oils and natural treatments. Once it reached this point, I realized I was only prolonging the inevitable. I had been making my own lotion for several years when all this took place. When I first started making it, I had no idea it would be such an integral part of my healing from skin cancer. After the procedure, I used my own lotion along with frankincense and helichrysum oil and it healed within 4 weeks. Now you can barely see the scar.
Having skin cancer caused me to think differently about how I was living my life here in the desert sun. Truth be told, I still hadn’t been using sunscreen as much as I should have. I loved going swimming and being in the sun. I always made sure I slathered sunscreen all over my daughters’ bodies and faces and even their scalps, but when it came to me, I either forgot or decided to “let myself tan”. We can all see the results of that. I’m now a firm believer that prevention really is the key to preserving your body and your skin. It is vital that we take proper care of our skin, avoid the sun, and always use sunscreen.
