You old sun dogs - make sure you visit a Dermatologist

[SUPcheat]

Looks like a "6" on the Ouch-O-Meter.

[TallDude]

My turn Wetstuff. Basal Cell Carcinoma removal and repair job today. Oh what fun.

[esskay1000]

I had my first and hopefully last basal cell removed last year. I've been a sunscreen nazi for the past 20 years but those burns as a kid might continue to haunt, so I've been told.....

[Weasels wake]

Yep, early sunburns are just like being in the mob, "just when you think you're out, they pull you back in".

I grew up on the beaches of San Diego (50's 60's), my mom would lather us up with Sea and Ski, or Coppertone, those were nothing but basting fluids.  Baby oil is another good one, you could just hear you skin sizzle after putting that stuff on, worked really well. 
With the exception of Zinc oxide, we would have probably been better off with nothing on our skin.

[Weeble]

I'm 47, my wife is 39.  She looks at me all the time with disbelief in how my friends and I were raised.  She grew up in the North in a successful family.  I grew up in south Florida, in a mainly working class to lower management type town just west of Fort Lauderdale.  I try to explain to her that growing up in south florida in the 60s-80's was different.  None of my friends came from families with working AC in their big, old, giant cars.  We were taken to Dania beach, which is on the south side of Port Everglades cuts.  Back then, ships could flush their tanks just outside of the port, so Dania beach had a lot of little tar balls in the water.  On any given weekend, we were taken by our parents to the beach to roast alive in the sun and get smears of tar all over us.  The end of the day found us standing outside of the car, barefoot on a burning hot asphalt surface, not allowed to get into the car until our fathers got the can of turpentine out of the trunk with the rag to rub hard against our burnt skin to get the tar off before we could climb into those giant ovens and sit on burning hot vinyl seats.  I haven't been burnt in years and years.  I know where my all of skin damage and cancers come from!

[Wetstuff]

Dude! ...'jeez!   I always wanted one of those dueling cheek or eye scars that the guys in German universities worked to get.  Now you got one. 'Badge of merit'. 

Jim

[2Rivers]

I just got diagnosed with skin cancer again. My first one was basal cell. Now it's squamous cell.
I also have actinic keratosis (pre-cancer) all over my face and bust area that also require treatment. My doctor has given me two options... Efudex or Picato. The main difference is the duration. Picato is only a 3 day treatment whereas Efudex is 2-4 week treatment. Picato is supposedly more evasive and possibly more painful, but the downtime is significantly shorter.
Has anyone here had any experience with the Picato treatment? I'm leaning toward this one, but I'm a bit apprehensive.

[Wetstuff]

2R... Sorry to hear.  I've only used Efudex a couple of times.. 'never heard of the other. (reservation medicine in my area)

Disregarding instructions, I rubbed it on 2X daily vs.3, and my wife, the RN, told me to quit putting it on like a baby.  However, after about two+ weeks of a 'mild sunburn', the 'nasty' came out of the closet and started to broil.  Once I could see new skin under the scabs (nobody stares at you in Walmart) I backed off. 

If you use Picato, please report back...  and, good luck.

Jim

[Caribsurf]

Having had two melanomas in the past 3 years , I see the dermatologist every 3 months.  Two weeks ago right before my vacation,  he cut out two spots on my back and sent them for biopsy " hoping for the best" he said.  I asked that he wait until I got back from vacation to give me the results.  Unfortunately the stupid lab called and left a voice mail at my house asking me to call them right away to discuss each result in detail.  Needless to say I had a long, sleepless night and with trembling hands called the lab the next morning only to be told they were moles and nothing to worry about.  I screamed at the lady not only for calling me on my vacation, but to leave a message suggesting there was an issue and scaring the hell out of me...I asked why the hell couldn't her message simply have said, " all is well with your biopsy,nothing to worry about"?  I told her I would find another dermatologist in the future.