re: Dermatologist Conference in Hawaii goes as how one can imagine.

I love all these phucking experts on here who read something on the net, and freely give advice. I'm in my 70's had my 1st surgery with skin cancer at 35. So over half my life I've been dealing with it. Everything has been basal cell, luckily, that's directly related to sun exposure. Genetics, blue eyes, blonde hair also play a factor in it. Not to mention the 2nd degree burn I got a 14 years old.

Four straight days, May 26 - 29 I go in for the Mohs procedure on 4 different areas. You won't see me out in the sun now without a big ugly straw hat and long sleeve shirt to protect my self.

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Should have gone to Wisconsin

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Lake Geneva: one hour drive from O’Hare

Think of it like filling up a bucket with a hose, where the bucket has a whole in the bottom of it…


Water goes into the bucket faster than it drains out the botttom, so if you keep filling, it will overflow. But if you fill for a little while, then let it drain, then you can start filling again safely. As long as you take breaks in between, the bucket never overflows.

The bucket is your body. The hose is the sun throwing UV rays at you. The hole at the bottom is your body processing those rays. When the bucket overflows, your body can’t handle the extended exposure, it burns, and that creates lasting damage. But as long as you let the bucket drain from time to time (by temporarily getting out from under the sun), your body processes the UV rays without causing harm.


So the argument is, the sun is not the cause of the cancer… the burn is.

Now if you’re going to sit in direct sunlight for 8 hours straight, then yea, load up on sunscreen and hats and sleeves and all of it. But if you let your bucket drain from time to time, you can get all of the vitamin D benefits of the sun without the spillover risk of the burn and the cancer.







NOTE: That’s just a theory, I have exactly 0 evidence other than knowing that this strategy is successful in helping me avoid sunburns. I’ll report back in 30 years to let y’all know if it helped on the cancer as well haha

I had Acral Lentiginous Melanoma, a rare skin cancer. Started as a small purple dot under my thumb nail that took the lymph node highway up my body, and formed a tumor on my face. Numerous surgeries (2 plastic surgeries to fix my face and reconstruct an ear) and chemo. You know what both the dermotologist and my oncologist told me when I asked if I got it from too much sun expsure? "Nope, you got it because you have bad luck."

Are we sure this isn’t a bunch of aloha snack bars enjoying Hawai’i?

There's a happy medium between being sun conscious and looking like a leather bag with skin cancer by your late 30s. That said, using a good SPF, wearing a big hat, and rash guards has definitely kept me out of a dermatologist office in that regard.

Unfortunately, a lot of my 90s peers went to the tanning bed religiously and are dealing with skin cancer at this point.

You think that's bad, then you should have seen the Proctologist convention. Assholes everywhere...

In the southern part of Los Angeles County they built a Buddhist Temple years back. And I believe it's a 3 mile radius that's considered holy. Asians everywhere, and covered up as much as possible. Sunscreen of their car windows, glove and long sleeve shirts.

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Pale skin is considered a social status in countries like Japan, China and South Korea.

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Why do they covet the pale skin as opposed to dark? Because the farmers all have darker skin, farming is towards the bottom of social status.

While I personally wouldn't wear that, I do have a few people in my family that have melanoma. I don't have any problem that try to protect their skin and do/wear that. I'll often wear a Hawaiian shirt and a hat when I'm not in the water, along with applying lotion every couple hours.