The Skin I'm In

No one would ever describe me as "freckle-y" but, I do have my fair share of those infamous brown dots all over my body. When I was younger, they were kind of cute. My mom used to pretend to play connect the dots with the ones on my back. But, now, as an adult, many of those freckles have grown into moles and quite frankly, they're just ugly. As a result, I am fairly serious about sun protection and 350 days of the year, I'm as pale as can be. Though, of course as a teen and tween, I burnt the SHIT out of myself constantly, based on the belief that the tanner my skin, the thinner I looked. I remember even before that, when I was just a girl of 5 or 6, my grandfather would encourage me to "get a little color," while slathering himself in Coppertone SPF 2, and smoking a cigar. Ahh, those were the days. Today, getting a suntan or burn is almost as taboo as drinking alcohol while you're pregnant or smoking in a restaurant. I kind of miss being oblivious to the danger that all that fun stuff can cause. Well, I'm here to tell you, the party is definitely over. I just came back from my annual appointment with my dermatologist and he took a biopsy of one of my mole/freckles on the side of my cheek. He didn't like the "color" of it and it had grown 2mm in the past 5 years. Anyway...turns out I don't have cancer. Phew! But, "they" (not entirely sure who "they" are) said it was a very unusual type of mole and, even though it's flat, it should be removed. Just to be safe.

So, I'm going to be safe and doing the procedure next week. I know I should be grateful and that it could be so much worse. But, I'm still a little freaked out by the whole thing.