By Karen
Last week my dermatologist biopsied a small white dot on my upper lip he couldn’t even see until I insisted it existed. That procedure left a crater in my lip that’s been filling back in nicely, thank you.
Yesterday afternoon, a nurse called me with the result. Basal cell carcinoma.
Since I heard that news less than 24 hours ago, Christie Brinkley announced she had one on her forehead, and Richard Simmons had one one under his eye.
It’s funny to have this happening just now, because last month when I spoke about my parents at their Celebration of Life, I opened with how we used to go to Salisbury Beach in the ‘50s when I was a toddler and Daddy would dig huge holes where I would play house…
My punchline was: “Today, if any teenage boy dug a hole that deep and left a little girl in it, I’d be in foster care faster than you could say ‘Child Protective Services.’”
[Sad aside: I recently read about a 7-year-old girl in Ft. Lauderdale who tragically died in a hole she’d dug with her brother when the sand dried and the hole collapsed. Now I know how lucky I was.]
The part of that story I didn’t tell was the aftermath, where I’d be dumped in the bathtub to wash off the sand, and then slathered with disgusting Noxzema skin cream because I was burnt all over. Sunscreen wasn’t a thing, and suntan lotion was only for tanning, which I never did, so why waste it on me?
In the ‘60s, I spent summers in Massachusetts at my grandparents’, mostly playing outside and always with a peeling, scabby nose from constant sunburn on my face.
In the ‘70s, I’d go to Virginia Beach with my girlfriends. They’d grease up with a mixture of iodine and baby oil and bake while and I’d sit there sweating in a big hat, wrapped in towels, and I’d still come away with a bad burn.
It was after one of these field trips in my early 20s that I got sun poisoning. My face swelled like Frankenstein’s monster, and the doctor said as he was sticking a needle in my ass, “You have to stop doing this or you’re going to get skin cancer.”
I listened to him and have spent the rest of my life fanatically in search of shade. My medicine cabinet is fully stocked with nothing lower than 50 SPF sunscreen.
I’ve been 98% successful. During my 30s-50s, after 45 cruises mostly in the Caribbean, I can count my sunburns on one hand, usually from the chest up from chatting with people too long in the ship’s pool.
In my 60s, I’ve had four rough patches called actinic keratoses frozen off my chest, face and leg. But this lip bump is my first actual cancer.
The doctor said it’s tiny and we caught it early, so that’s good.
When my lip heals a bit more, I’ll be scheduled for Mohs surgery, which doesn’t sound too bad, albeit time-consuming. They shave off layers and then analyze the skin to see if they removed all the cancerous cells. It has a very high cure rate.
I’ve always wondered when all my sunburns would catch up with me, and now they have. It’s almost a relief to know my skin is finally getting its revenge for all the pain and peeling I put it through and I can’t trust it anymore.
I’m not freaking out about this because it’s tiny, it’s early, and it could have been in a worse place, like that freckle my OB/GYN once biopsied “down there” that turned out to be nothing.
We’ll just have to see how the Mohs goes.
Cats Working 
Sending hopes for a successful procedure and a complete recovery, Karen.
Thanks, Leah!
I had Moh’s on the bridge of my nose. Worst place to have because they bandaged it up. Not sure how they’ll do that with a lip but wishing you the best. Other than the annoying waits between layers, it’s not a bad experience.
A great example of how much we absolutely MUST advocate for ourselves in our healthcare system…. which scares me the older I get and eventually less able to do that for myself. Glad you caught it! I’m due for my routine derm appointment for a full-body go-over. This was a good reminder!! btw, was that Salisbury Beach in Mass? That area is my old stomping grounds.
I’ve had a few removed, all benign, – hated the ones on the nose and lips, but most of the others (forehead, cheeks) didn’t take long to heal over and fade.
That childhood was fun, though, and I won’t regret it, but there are some with the melanoma skin cancers (and some friends of mine) who didn’t make it far after diagnosis. Best to get the skin checks every year, or sooner if something pops up out of the blue.
Kate, I really expected something on my nose, but so far, knock on wood. This thing on my lip is off to the side and on the top lip. When they did the biopsy, they took out a good chunk and did nothing but put Vaseline on it. It didn’t bleed much. I’m really hoping they got most, if not all of it, then. It feels like it’s gone, but with cancer who knows?
Yes, it was that Salisbury Beach. We lived about 20-30 minutes away in Methuen. We rented houses there for a week for a few years. My great-aunt actually owned a house right on the beach, but we never really went there. She probably rented it out most of the time. I don’t know if it’s still in the family or sold.
My derm appointment was supposed to be a month ago, and I had the lump then, but they canceled it for some reason, as it seems they always do when they schedule appointments a year in advance. I’ve only been going every year since I had that freak full-body breakout of eczema and scalp psoriasis a few years ago. Those have both cleared up completely and never come back.
I’m wondering when I’m going to have to start bringing someone without gray hair to doctor appointments with me because I can’t get anybody to listen to me. It’s bad enough they treat you like you’re senile the minute you walk in the door and until you say a few things that makes sense.
cagedunn, congratulations on your luck with the skin stuff so far. This was my third biopsy for skin and the first one to come up positive. Now that it’s started, I know I have to be careful. My mother had a big scabby-looking, dark irregular spot on the top of her head that had all the signs of being skin cancer. They removed it once, but it came back. Once that happened, she said, “That’s it. It can stay. What’s the point? It’ll just come back.” In the end, it was colon cancer that got her because she skipped the last colonoscopy she should have had at 82 because the doctor told her it was optional, even though she had a history of polyps and had been getting scoped every 5 years.
Fingers crossed! You have enough going on!
The real estate agent is holding an open house at my parents’ this weekend, and she’s got five showings lined up so far. We think it will sell fairly soon because there are only a few houses in that price range in the area, and this one has a lake view, so we’ll see.
My lip is healing up so nicely, I hate to mess it up again with the Mohs, but better safe than dead.
Yeah, dead is not a good look.
Methuen?? Then we really did grow up in the same area! Though I lived over the line in NH. How funny….small world!
feijicha, I was born in a hospital in Lawrence, lived in Methuen until I was 10. My paternal grandparents lived just over the line in Salem, NH. We got transferred elsewhere for some years, but returned to Mass. when I was a sophomore in high school and I graduated in North Andover. I had relatives who lived in Haverhill, Danvers, Melrose, Groveland, Boston and other places. I still consider myself a New England girl.
BTW, my Mohs surgery has been scheduled for April 22.
oooh boy..I’m in for it! My brother had 2 removed recently, and he was never a sun worshiper. I am a fair skinned redhead and baked my self on the beach went into tanning beds for years.
lately, I have noticed a couple growths and I haven’t been to my dermatologist in two years so I’ll be going in a few months the earliest appointment I could get. Hope everything works out for you Karen. I haven’t been in direct sunlight for years, but clearly we pay for our early indiscretions later on in life.
Morgan, my lip is healing up so well, I’m wondering if maybe the biopsy got it all, but I need to do the Mohs to make sure. My appointment is April 22. The woman I spoke with talked about putting in stitches, but if I didn’t need any for the crater the biopsy left, I’m wondering how much they take off this time.
Yes, better be safe than sorry with your suspicious spots. I’ve had four rough, flaky patches frozen off my chest, leg, and above my lip (actually, right above where this spot appeared on my lip — related?) before, and now you’d never know they were there. I guess they would have turned into something at some point.
Sorry to hear about your brother, but at least he’s staying on top of it. Good luck with yours, and keep me posted.
Karen he got several stitches on his forehead. Like my father my brother hates the beach but worked outside, I’ve had so many evil sunburns peeling swelling even sun poisoning so I’m a goner. I’ve had dozens of spots frozen off over the years so we’ll see. We were in the sun all day at the beach when we lived in Puerto Rico for a few years, mom was a beach rat and for 24 years always took a house at the beach for 6 weeks. I was one of the baby oil idiots too! So screwed, but with bad knees and hips and all the rest what else is new? To quote Bette Davis “ getting old ain’t for sissies”.
It does sound like you ran the gamut of sun worship.
I stopped trying by about 21 and with just a few upper body burns on cruises have been ghostly ever since. The best thing is to heed any weird little change and get it checked. Sounds like you’ve been doing that, so hope for the best. I have my father’s pale Irish skin. My mother was Italian and always tanned. My Italian grandmother used to say about me, “She could pass for English!”
I’m more worried about what stitches will do to fuck up my lip, which has all but disappeared anyway as they’ve thinned with age.
Bette Davis had it right. But she had at least one stroke. So, knock on wood.