What is skin cancer?

I thought it important that I use my blog to spread some information about skin cancer, early detection, and treatment options available.  I will start with the obvious, Actinic Keratosis and Basal Cell Carcinoma.

Actinic Keratosis is the most common form of "pre cancer". They appear on sun exposed skin and show up as red spots, rough in texture, show up primarily on the face, bald scalp, lips, and the back of hands.  They will appear elevated and be rough in texture.  Left untreated, AK's can advance to be squamous cell carcinoma.  Most recent estimates have the number of Americans with Actinic Keratosis at 58 million. For more specific information visit this site:  Actinic Keratosis.  

Basal Cell Carcinoma: BCCs are the most common form of skin cancer and can appear as open

sores, red patches, scars, pink growths, or shiny spots.  While not common, in rare instances BCC 

can spread and become life threatening.  There are an estimated 2.8 million people diagnosed

with BCC every year.  More than 1 out of every 3 new cancers is a skin cancer and the vast

majority of those cases are BCC.  Get more information on risk, treatment, and prevention 

at this site:  BCC. 

One of my goals this year is to take my message of skin cancer prevention and awareness to the

high schools in my area.  As a high school kid myself growing up on a farm and marching in band 

I wasted no time every summer getting that "base tan"...which in most cases was a severe burn. 

If I can get just one teen to think about how much time they spend in the sun or a tanning bed it
will be a WIN!!!

Tomorrow, SCC and melanoma information.

Why do I still LiveSTRONG?

I still support the LiveSTRONG Foundation and continue to volunteer my time to this cancer support organization!  I am going to retell a story that I have told many times but it is worth telling.

I lost my Mom to a recurrence of cancer in October 2003.  Between 2003 and 2011 I found cycling through a friend at work who had lost her Father to cancer in 2002 and we both needed something to channel our energy and feelings of loss.  We found 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte.  Spencer Leuders, a local attorney, had started this event a couple of years prior and it seemd like a natural fit.  24 Hours of Booty had an established relationship with the LiveSTRONG Foundation (then known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation).  I had followed Lance's story and became a fan of cycling and like many of us chose to believe.....NOT in the athlete but in the cancer SURVIVOR.  Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I immersed myself in supporting 24 Hours of Booty, rode a lot of miles (some years) and not a lot of miles most years but most importantly raised a lot of money for cancer support activities for them.

Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I came to know many cancer survivors and unfortunately lost several friends to cancer.  I also got to know the stories of people like the Kiblers from Florida whose wonderful little son Camden only lived 8 months due to cancer, my son's high school baseball coach who was a childhood cancer survivor, and many many others.  I am afraid to mention any because I am obviously forgetting some.  The key is that I learned their stories and became even more dedicated to helping cancer survivors through LiveSTRONG.

Then in April 2011, cancer paid me a personal visit with a diagnosis of skin cancer.  I was diagnosed and treated with the most common and easiest to treat form of skin cancer:  basal cell carcinoma.  I never expected to hear those words myself..."you have cancer" but there they were.  That is when I started learning more about what I had done to myself so many years ago as a teenager/college kid trying to get and maintain a tan.  I also dedicated myself that year to raising more money than I ever had for the cause and was grateful that I had donors to help me reach $15,500 for cancer advocacy and support services through 24 Hours of Booty.  In September of that year I lost my job of 15 years and luckily it took me a little over 90 days to find a new one.  Lucky in that I was invited to Ride for the Roses, the celebration of top fundraisers at the Austin, TX LiveSTRONG Challenge.  It was there that I spent two minutes riding with Lance.  That was an honor; however, it was not the most important thing that happened to me that weekend.

From the time I was diagnosed and treated I never really felt like a "survivor".  My cancer really wasn't life threatening. My cancer didn't require months of horrible chemo and radiation treatments. My cancer was, well according to what a lot of people told me, really wasn't cancer and I was simply over reacting.  Well, the other attendees from the other 24 Hours of Booty rides wouldn't accept that I wasn't a survivor.  The morning of the 5K, as we approached the finish line there was two lines...one for survivors and one for everyone else.  My friends made sure that I went through the survivor finish line (I guess you could say they herded me into that lane).  One of the people I met that weekend was good friends with Doug Ulman, cancer survivor and CEO of the Foundation.  My friend encouraged me to talk to Doug about my feelings about not being a survivor and I did.  On the day of the actual bike ride, I found myself standing Doug at the refreshment tent....so I summoned up my courage and went over and asked him if I could ask him a question.  I told him about my diagnosis and my feelings of not being a survivor.  Doug looked me in the eye, now remember this is a guy who had life threatening cancer, and asked me "has a doctor told you that you have cancer?" to which I had to say yes.  He then said, you are a survivor.  He went on to say that we can't compare treatments or types of cancer.  He went on to say that no two cancers are alike and no two treatment plans are alike and that if I tried to compare my treatment to others I was doing myself a huge disservice.   That 5 minute conversation really drove home the message of survivorship....!

Since that time, I have changed dermatologist and am now on a second "more aggressive" form of treatment for my arms.  The most recent is what prompted me to start blogging again.

While the LiveSTRONG Foundation was started by Lance Armstrong and his cancer survival story is well known...the Foundation is ran by a small but dedicated staff of folks who truly believe in cancer survivorship mission and so do I!  That is why I still LiveSTRONG!!!!

Day 3 of the 5FU treatment & kick off of 2013 24 Hours of Booty planning

Today is the 3rd day of the 5FU treatment and I am afraid to think of what my arms are going to look like at the end of the full 4 weeks.  Let's just say that the drying of the skin is already pretty bad and the "promised" effect of targeting the bad skin cells as my left arm looks horrible.  There are more little red spots on my left arm that I could have ever imagined.  I thought the Blue-U treatment had pulled out all of the bad cells...boy was I was wrong!!

I checked in with my LiveSTRONG Navigate Cancer nurse over the weekend and she gave me a ton of great information about the chemo treatment 5FU, how long it has been around, and really answered all of my questions about any potential side effects for this topical treatment.  Of course, I knew the dry skin, peeling, itching, etc. were going to be side effects; however, I didn't know there was the potential for some of the other side effects.  Just goes to show you that the services LiveSTRONG offer are truly AWESOME!

The day ended with such a rush of excitement!  If you know anything about me you know I am a dedicated volunteer, rider, and fundraiser for 24 Hours of Booty here in Charlotte!  For the past 4 years I have been working on the "Booty Organizing Committee" which is a group of folks who work with the full time staff to make the event happen.  Tonight was the first planning meeting for the newly renamed Logistics Team.  The people on this team are like family to me.  There are cancer survivors, people who have been impacted by cancer, or simply folks who just want to make an impact in the cancer community!  I am excited about another year.  Be looking for my fundraising notes soon!!!

The world is a much better place with family & friends!

I am very grateful for many things in my life.  I have a wonderful wife who is truly my best friend.  We have been married for, what will be, 24 years on February 11th. She is my strength and the LOVE of my life!  I have two fantastic sons.  I could not be more proud of them.  We are like any other family...we have our good days, we have our not so good days but we are a family.....!

I am grateful for the many friends that I have made through my life.  From the boys & girls in high school, the men of the TN Theta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon at MTSU, the courageous men & women of Echo Battery 8/43 ADA (PATRIOT) I served with from Texas to Germany to Operation Desert Shield/Desert Strom; the many fabulous people I've met and worked with in my career outside the Army....needless to say this list could go on for a long time.

More recently, I am grateful that I met and have been associated with the folks in the cancer community; specifically, 24 Hours of Booty & the LiveSTRONG Foundation.  I have met so many awesome people with these two organizations and now consider these folks family.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of my life!  Thanks to everyone who has reads my blog and sends me words of encouragement!  You guys are awesome!!!

A year later....a new treatment!

So, I haven't posted in some time primarily because there has not been a lot to talk about.  I had been watching a few spots on both arms as well as a place on the back of my neck in the hairline.  I went back to my dermatologist last Friday for my 6 month follow up and here is that update.

If you read some of last year's post I went through complete rounds of Kerastick Blue-U treatment.  Basically, they coated my arms in some chemical and let it soak in for 2 hours, then I sat under a blue  blue UV lamp for 17 minutes.  This was supposed to pull out all of the bad cells.  Well, I guess it didn't do the job.

My doctor was not at all pleased that my left arm was covered in Ak's again and my right arm had one small ak.  So I am now on a 2nd type of chemical treatment.  He put me on a drug called 5-FU.  For the 1st week, I used Tazorac again to soften up the dermas.  Then today, I started with the 5-FU application....twice a day....for 4 weeks.

I've been told it should be a much better job pulling out the remaining "bad" cells.  I will be posting pictures starting tomorrow with before, during, and after the treatment.  I will tell this, my arms are already itching like crazy.