when i was young and in my prime, i could get a .....

When I was 20 y/o, I met a 52 y/o man who used to remark at how "tempus sure as hell does fugit". (Tempus fugit is a Latin expression meaning "time flees", more commonly translated as "time flies").

I continued to work with the "old man" 'til he was 60 y/o. He died a few years later from emphysema, aka cigarettes.

At age 51, I independently arrived at the same conclusion that indeed, tempus sure as hell does fugit! One year later, I had a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma.

--Stitz--

Do ya think Einstein was on to something with that relativity theory of his?

Stitz, hope you're okay.

You got a good idea there, if we started buzzing around at near the speed of light, time would slow down and thus counteract it's speeding up as we get old.

Nick

We do buzz around like bees when we're younger, don't we ;)

thanks, velamina. it's been eight+ years since a surgeon removed the tumor.... in this case, it's considered a cure.

Squamous cell carcinomas are one of the better ones to have if you have to have one. I have had 2 squamous cells on the shoulders and a basal cell on the forehead. They were caught early enough not to be a considered a problem. Still gives you food for reflection when you get the diagnosis.

Spent much of my youth in the desert and on the ski slope. Dune buggies, ATVs, hang gliding and skiing is what my family did on weekends. In those days we did not use sunblock so my sun exposure was significant. Now, when my daughter takes her kids swimming, they are dressed like muslin women in full body chastity suits! And sunblock is laddered everywhere.

Malignant melanoma is the only one I'm concerned about, the others are manageable. I check religiously for dark lesions and have some one check my back once a month.

Nick

Nick,

I disagree with you re: "Squamous cell carcinomas are one of the better ones to have if you have to have one." In my case, the tumor invaded the hypopharynx and the larynx. SCC is a killer in at least 30% of the cases of laryngectomees. My tumor grew 100% in the five weeks from diagnosis until surgery. I was told that SCC is a slow growing tumor? HA! From 2.5 cm to 5 cm in five weeks.

I personally know many who didn't survive. I am very thankful to be ALIVE!

--Stitz--

I was under the mistaken impression, from past comments, that you had a skin lesion which is usually manageable uless it is close to the moth. Squamous cell ca can be found in many places, lung a good example, where the prognosis is very bad. If yours involved the hypopharynx and larynx, you are indeed very lucky to walk away from it.

Some one was watching over you.

Nick

"Some one was watching over you."

Yes indeedy!

And, I accepted nothing less than excellence from the various scheduling staffs of multiple physicians. I loved hearing "Yes, Mr Stitz, you have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8 AM!" :)

I'll be checking a few of those vivacious little beauty marks this year (joy).
-_-

velamina & nick,

There IS an option - find a competent dermatologist who will remove "suspicious" nevi in advance. why fart around?

"I'll be checking a few of those vivacious little beauty marks this year (joy)."

"Malignant melanoma is the only one I'm concerned about, the others are manageable. I check religiously for dark lesions and have some one check my back once a month."

--Stitz--

Tis true, that IS good advice :)

That's the only way to handle it. I have had a couple removed but they were negative.

I have also watched 2 acquaintance die form MM.

Nick

"Life is like a box of chocolates..."

Switching gears for a sec, and more related to your topic, I've noticed that as I've aged I have way less tolerance for reading. Must have something to do with processing as you've posted above but I know quite a few people older than me that go through books and books. I wondered if anyone else experiences this?

Here, in the land of socialised medicine you can trot along and be examined from head to toe once a year for skin cancers. cost = nil.

And they do look between your toes for anything suspicious.

The UV forecast for today is 12 (extreme) and no doubt there will be ten of thousands nut cases laying on the sands at the beaches.

My golf partner of 30 years died from MM after a nasty looking black wart did turn nasty and that was after a few experts had looked at it over the years and pronounced it harmless.

Time moves so fast because we are getting closer to the end.

That is crazy, as much as my boys love the beach they wouldn't do it; and at least they take care of themselves with sunblock too.

"My golf partner of 30 years died from MM after a nasty looking black wart did turn nasty and that was after a few experts had looked at it over the years and pronounced it harmless."

Arthur, I am indeed very sorry to learn of your loss of your golf partner.

tsk, tsk tsk....what a waste; and, at what cost? an extra half-hour from a trained dermatologist. plus, the time for a pathologist to look at a few slides?!?

Both of my parents had heavy nevi. They ganged up on me. I had extra-ordinary numbers of "suspicious" ones. Most are now gone, one by one through the years of religious annual examinations. No, not a single one was determined to be a melanoma by a pathologist. I don't feel cheated.

"They" kept trying and trying. Only once was a BCC (basal cell carcinoma) diagnosed.

--Stitz--

That's the beauty of capitalism. My dermatologist makes money every time he sticks a knife in me, much less if he just looks at me. No black warts would be observed very long!

My tolerance to books that don't grab me has decreased. I'm looking at 6 right in front of me where I plowed through 1/3 of them but can forgo the rest as they just did not do it for me. I seem to have a harder time finding books that I can't put down.

Nick

Just saw your post, Stitz, Basal Cells can be a hoot too. I had one, innocent enough until the path report showed it to be the sclerosing type. These make up less than 5% of all Basal Cells but have a near 100% chance of recurring unless one gets all of the dendrils which are buried in the surrounding skin. Just like multiple rhyzomes digging in all directions.

They took out a 1 1/2" in diameter piece of skin near the scalp line and then undermined a large area of scalp and nearly crushed my head pushing the edges together. All under local, so much fun! At least it never came back.

Nick

"That's the beauty of capitalism. My dermatologist makes money every time he sticks a knife in me, much less if he just looks at me. No black warts would be observed very long!"

I joke with my dermatologist every couple of years. I don't want to really piss him off. I remark at how I put at least one of his chillun through university....

Geez, Nick - my dermatologist uses razor blades. Yours needs to update to the 20th century! oOoOps! this is the 21st Century! knives, scalpels, razor blades....what'll they think of next? :)

The MDs who really make out like bandits - the Pathologists. They can sit at home with a microscope (very little overhead!) and review slides while drinking beer, eating popcorn and watching late night movies!!

--Stitz--

Actually they use cryosurgery, freezing things they want to remove, where it is not necessary to evaluate the lesion under the microscope. If microscopic evaluation is necessary, scalpel is still the old and proven cutting instrument. Laser destroys the margins.

When something is removed, there is a fee for removing it, a separate fee for preparing the specimen and a fee for interpreting the results. My dermatologist does all three as he has training in pathology too but can only receive 2 of the 3 fees. If he sent the specimen to a pathologist all 3 fees would be paid, 1 to him, 2 to the pathologist. No big deal but just a quirk in our unique way of medical care compensation. In the end it usually works out very well.

One of the 2 individuals I knew who died of MM was a college of mine who told us that he suspected a black lesions, talked of his plans to have it removed and procrastinated a full 6 month before he actually did something about it. By then it was too late. A nasty disease that needs to be taken very seriously.

Nick