Making skin cancer trendy
It seems basal cell carcinoma is having a moment. And I want in. Also: Madewell + Saks sales must-haves.
If you guys know anything about me by now, then you have gleaned by now that my need to be trendy knows no bounds. I loooooove knowing what all the girlies are wearing, eating, watching and listening to. I even like knowing where they are vacationing and not only what they did when they got there but also what and how they packed for the trip.
If the US outlaws TikTok, I don’t know how I’m going to keep up.
This impulse to be up on all things in the zeitgeist is hereditary. My mom and sister suffer from the same affliction. Just try to tell them about something new you just ate, bought or watched and they’ll say, “Meh.” That’s because they’ve already cycled through all the stages of obsession, eventual overuse and finally, boredom. They’ve already moved on by the time you’ve discovered it.
The same, it seems, is true with cancer. At the end of last year, I called my mom to tell her that a dermatologist had discovered a basal cell alongside my nose that needed to be removed, and she said she had just had the same diagnosis. We ended up having Moh’s surgery a week apart and she even ended up at the surgeon’s office for her one-week post-procedure checkup the day of my surgery. I kept joking it was mother/daughter Moh’s.
I credit even noticing weird things happening on my face at the end of last summer with my hyper-fixation on my nose back when I was drinking. I was convinced that it was starting to look like I was drinking every day and becoming kind of purple and bumpy. But after I stopped drinking, it stayed kind of pink and I realized it was the rosacea flareup from all the caffeine I drink.
But in September, I noticed some weird scabbing almost at the tip of my nose. For all the weird things that my skin likes to do, this really seemed different. And then there was this thing under my eye that I kept operating on. I get tiny, hard little calcium deposits called milia that refuse any type of intervention and take months to work their way out. And that’s what I thought this was and that it had gotten to the end and needed some help getting worked out from under my skin. I finally extracted whatever was in there, but it never fully healed. The tiny scab never went away.
I am a lot of things, but I am not an alarmist. I never go looking for problems and when problems surface, I like to either minimize or ignore. I am a mother who told her college freshman his severe abdominal pain and vomiting was just a really bad stomach bug and a few days later when the symptoms persisted, that he might as well try to go to class. Twenty-four hours later, he was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix.
I think if I had seen just one of the issues — the scabbing or the pimple that wouldn’t heal — I would have ignored it. But the combo is what pushed me to finally reach out to my dermatologist on her secret extension. At one point, between me and my kids and their various skin ailments, I was calling the line the doctor’s nurse had shared with me to bypass the front desk and get in tout de suite. I worried since I hadn’t been in to see her in a couple of years, they’d push back. But the nurse called me right back and said the doctor would see me the following week but ONLY look at my nose.
The day of the exam, the doctor immediately diagnosed the scabs at the end of my nose as pre-cancerous, which she froze off, and biopsied the thing under my eye. “I think this one is going to need Moh’s surgery,” she told me, and I was like, “What is that?”
Since then, it seems like Moh’s surgery is super trendy. Anyone I’ve mentioned it to is either just had it, or knows someone who did. Pretty much, a specialized dermatologist digs a hole around the traitorous cell and keeps scraping thin layers off to examine and ensure all traces of the cancer have been removed. I was lucky, only needing one pass, but apparently, sometimes it takes a few rounds before it’s all scraped away
This was all in January and since then, the big hole the doctor cut into my face is pretty much healed. There’s still discoloration and, frankly, kind of a divot out of the side of my nose. I am not sure what’s going to happen there. But it seems better than the alternative.
I saw a few weeks ago a blaring headline about Christie Brinkley’s cancer diagnosis and then when I (obviously) clicked the link to read further, learned it was just a basal cell. The same thing this week with all the fuss over Richard Simmons’ cancer diagnosis and him “dying.”
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. Around 3.6 million Americans are treated each year, including First Lady Jill Biden last year. It’s a slow grower and highly treatable but also a sign that you need to be more cautious about sun exposure.
Aside from the divot in my face, this will probably be the hardest thing for me. My children are horrified watching me bake in the sun with little to no sunscreen. I get really tan, really fast and often write off sunburns as a part of the process.
Maybe my TikTok algorithm will change after I post this and start feeding me videos of all the girlies who are slathering on the sunscreen and opting for self-tanners instead? They’ll make sitting under a big umbrella on the beach look cool and wide-brimmed hats will appear very chic.
Then at least this summer, when I’m on the beach under a big umbrella wearing a sombrero, I will be on-trend.
sunday shares: read + watch + cook + buy
I’ll take THINGS THAT ARE BULLSHIT for $200, Alex. At the start of the year, I not only learned I had skin cancer but that I’d gained 10 pounds in about three months. I didn’t even have to try very hard to make that happen. I just kind of let all my eating boundaries slide following a trip to Aruba in early November and by late January, none of my clothes fit. It’s frustrating because I had just lost probably the same amount of weight starting this time last year, and had felt happy with where I was. I don’t need to weigh 100 pounds (or 110 or 120 or 130) and I liked where I was. So, now it’s back to a lot of salads. I put chicken breasts in a slow cooker with some salsa and ate shredded on lettuce cups topped with avocado. I made a piece of steak that I put on top of kale I massaged with lemon and sprinkled with nutritional yeast. But I could use some new ideas. I’m not even pretending to ask for a friend.
TikTok to the rescue. I finally made one of the 700 “recipes” I see the girlies make on the app for “healthy” sweet treats last night. It was yogurt + peanut butter + vanilla protein powder + almond flour + chocolate chips. Freeze for 10 minutes. It made me kinda sick. I’d rather just eat one of these (frozen, duh).
Being chubby doesn’t keep me from shopping. Ask all the girls I work with and they will attest that I’ve been sending them links to buy clothes I think will look cute on them. I’m just trying to spend someone’s money, since I don’t fit anything. HOWEVER, there are two great sales right now I had to get in on:
Madewell continues their Insiders event with 25% off the entire store. I snapped up a couple of the Harlow-style pants to try and really like them. They are generously sized and for my 5’4” body, the petite size was the perfect length. I see them at work with sneakers or loafers and dressed up with a heel.
This sling/cross-body bag is awfully cute. I actually bought this one for going out (that is, should I actually go out), but tbd whether I’m keeping it. I am also eyeing these flats HARD and highly recommend these heels (as I do most all Madewell shoes — the quality and fit is always excellent).
I have been hot to pick up another pair of Mother jeans but refuse to pay full price. Ta-da! Saks’ Friends and Family sale is also winding down and you can find a few styles still significantly discounted.
That’s hot. I know there’s a lot of hate out there for Gwyneth Paltrow, but I really like her. She’s not afraid to try new things (I loved her first cookbook and made a million things from it), and she curses like a sailor. You would have gotten this newsletter 20 minutes sooner today if I did not fall down a hole watching her on the YouTube show Hot Ones. My kids introduced me to the series, where the very likable host interviews celebrities while sampling increasingly hot wings. The Jennifer Lawrence one remains my favorite but Gwyneth was a good sport.
See you next Sunday. xoAmy
Love your sense of fashion! I’m definitely buying those Harlow pants for work😍