I generally don't worry about statistics.
Before transplant, I caught bugs that very few people caught. Non-infectious Tb? 4% of the CF population gets that. The bug that almost killed me in college? One other person in the world. Seriously. Not kidding. At least, documented, one other person.
Post-transplant, my stats are flipped. I'm still in the small percentages, but it's good. I'm one of the 55% of women who made it to five years post-transplant. There isn't even data for 10 year survival rates on the UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) website--and I'm looking at hitting 12 years in July.
So when my transplant coordinator, way back in that first July, talked about skin cancer and sun protection, I just sort of nodded. Our ("our" being transplant recipients here) risk of getting skin cancer is 10x higher than the general population. But, I've always been really good about sun protection. I've burned maybe three times in my life. I keep lots of sunscreen around. I seek shade. I go to the dermatologist every six months to get checked out. I am fair, but I'm also Italian, so that probably helps a little bit--but I am generally quite protective of my skin. I'm very familiar with SPF and its iterations in products.
But. All that being said--eventually, the statistics might catch up with you.
And so it was that, when I visited the dermatologist last week for my yearly skin exam (I see her more often than that, but this was the annual full body check), she biopsied three suspicious spots.
And all three of them came back as types of skin cancer. Squamous Cell Carcinoma, (SCC) to be exact.
So tomorrow I'm having mohs surgery to have these spots removed. We're not doing all three at one go; we're breaking it up into two sessions, one this week, and one next. Mohs surgery involves the surgeon (which my dermatologist is) taking very very very thin slices of skin, examining them under a microscope, and checking for cancer cells. She removes these layers of skin until the microscope shows no more cancer. And voila! No more cancer! So I don't even want to call it cancer, because seriously, this is like, minor leagues. I go in, I get some skin cut off, and we move on. Easy.
Now, that being said, SCC can be fatal. 8,000 people die of it in the U.S. every year. And of course now I even have to be more careful about sun protection. All my v-neck t-shirts? Gone. I'm going to be adding to my hat collection. There are going to be multiple SPF products in my purse at all times.
But I can get this fixed and keep it in check with regular dermatologist appointments, and possibly some immunosuppression tweaking. Because that's the big part of the issue.
Some of the meds I'm on make the skin photosensitive--really sensitive to light, and can cause it to burn much faster than a normal person's. Hence, the good sun protection strategies I had in place.
But the immunosuppression drugs also keep the immune system from functioning properly, as we know. And that includes hampering its ability to kill potential cancer cells.
I've gotten rid of one med that made my skin photosensitive--good! And now we're trying to see what we can do with the immunosuppression. We might not be able to do much, because there's not a wealth of pharmaceutical products we can choose from, here. But we'll see what can happen. Obviously, we want to keep my lungs in tact! And if push comes to shove, that's what I'm choosing. I can wear more sun screen and have my skin checked more often, but it's really hard to find a new pair of lungs, as we know.
I'm also using this post to implore you to protect your skin, especially if you're fair like I am. Seriously. I know I'm a a much higher risk for these things than the general population, but skin cancer, in general, is skyrocketing in the U.S. Tans are not cool, people. Don't go to tanning beds. Don't "lay out" for hours to get toasty brown. That's not a good look.
- Wear hats (big sun hats when you're at the beach--baseball caps don't cut it. If you do wear a baseball cap, put sunscreen on your ears!).
- Wear sunscreen all the time. You can get sunburned on a cloudy day.
- Get sunglasses with UV protection in the lenses.
- If you really need the extra protection, do what I do and get face cream with SPF in it. (This is my favorite. And if you get the big one, it will last you almost a year. Seriously. Mine has. So it works out, budget-wise, because it's cheaper than the drug store bottles of moisturizer that you keep buying. And it's very hard to find SPF 30 in a moisturizer!) And it's worth it to get SPF protection anyway, even if you just want to minimize/delay signs of aging.There's also Clinique City Block.
- Fresh's Sugar Lip treatments are what I wear during the day now instead of lipstick, because SPF 15! I really don't want to get part of my lip cut off, guys. And neither do you, I bet. Or grab a regular lip balm with SPF in it. Those aren't hard to find. Foundations and BB/CC creams also have SPF in them. (Bobbi Brown, Supergoop, and Smashbox are three brands to check out.)
- This is a revelation to me--hand cream with SPF 40. Seriously? Awesome.
- And finally, get clothes--or at the very least, swimwear--with UPF, which is like SPF for clothes. I started wearing one of these last year, and I'm getting another one for our trip to the beach this year. Yes, I can go to the beach, and I'm going to be there with an umbrella, lots of sunscreen, this coverup, and hats! Other companies that have UPF items include Lands End and Duluth Trading Company. It's becoming more and more common, thankfully.
Anything you do to protect your skin is better than nothing. So even if you're not nearly as high risk as I am, do yourself a favor and learn how to protect your skin--and do it. Be smart.