Went up to my skin doc to get my cancer removed.
He said that if you get sunburned and blistered as a child you have a real good chance of developing skin cancer when you get to be an old fart.
Well, I remember going swimming by the Olentangy River north of Columbus, OH and getting burned and blistered every year for a while when I was just a young'un.
In Ohio, if you got a sunburn AND got blistered you were like a god. Wow, you are cool! After those outings it was neat just to sit back and break the blisters that were on you back and arms.
Well, last month after fishing offshore, I felt a raised patch on my skin. I thought it was just dry skin and was rubbing goop on it to try and make it go away. My doc said this is how you make it go away.
Ten stitches later, no more dry scaly itchy spot.
He said the face lift was done for free.
Oh well, wear that sunscreen!
Here is the description of what I have:
Squamous cell carcinoma in situ: An early stage of skin cancer. Also known as Bowen's disease.
This is a tumor that develops from the squamous cells which are flat, scalelike cells in the outer layer of the skin (the epithelium). The term "in situ" (borrowed from the Romans) means "in the natural or normal place" and, in the case of cancer, it says that the tumor cells are still confined to the site where they originated and they have neither invaded neighboring tissues nor metastasized afar.
The hallmark of squamous cell carcinoma in situ (Bowen's disease) is a persistent, progressive, slightly raised, red, scaly or crusted plaque. Bowen's disease may occur anywhere on the skin surface (or on mucosal surfaces such as the mouth).
Under the microscope, atypical squamous cells are seen to have proliferated through the whole thickness of the epidermis (the outer layer of the skin) but to have gone no farther.
The cause of Bowen's disease classically was prolonged exposure to arsenic. Today, Bowen's disease occurs most often in the sun-exposed areas of the skin in "older" white males.
Treatment options include freezing with liquid nitrogen, cauterization (burning), surgical removal, and chemosurgery.
Bowen's disease is named after the American dermatologist John Templeton Bowen (1857-1941).
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