Sun-avoidance

There are a number of things I have become obsessive about since learning a thing or two about bodies and disease and I wish I could say sun avoidance was one of them. I am horribly conflicted about the sun. On one hand (the more sensible of the two), the sun ages your skin, suppresses your immune system, and contributes to/causes a variety of skin cancers. I have already had one basal cell carcinoma removed from my neck - we're not talking pre-cancer; we're talking full-blown all-out it had gotten cancerous. Luckily, basal cell is the least dangerous and least likely to metastasize of all skin cancers. NONETHELESS. That was a setback. On the other hand, there's the warm feeling of the sun on your skin, the inner peace that only comes with lying in the sun and waiting to get too hot, and the lovely pink or brown glow you get when you're sun-kissed.

I have never been an avocational "tanner." Okay, that's not entirely true, but I have spent a total of ten minutes in a tanning bed in my entire lifetime and that was because I was good friends with the lady who owned it and she gave me the session for free. It was bright and seemed to do nothing to my skin. I think I was too reflective-white to absorb radiation. My skin's current problem is that I was nut-brown all summer (nine months long where I come from) from ages 2 to 13. Seriously, I should post some photos of me looking like Sheena of the Beasts. My dad thought it was an excellent idea to get in my first couple of burns so that I would just tan after that. Several times every summer I'd get burned so badly I'd run around naked saying that I had on a white bathing suit - the shape of my bathing suit was perfectly imprinted on my otherwise lobster-red body.

ANd now? Well - no kidding - my skin has aged MUCH faster than my peers'. My hands and face and arms and legs (but not my belly - I rarely wore a two-piece) are all wrinkly. Now, hear this. Additional sun exposure will absolutely suppress my immune system. Our immune systems are one of our biggest allies against cancer. They find the cancer cells and kill, kill, kill them. Sun will also cause additional damage (DNA fried, helpful proteins demolished, etc.) to my skin and its repair mechanisms.

So, fine, I officially swear off laying out. Not that I actually did this very much in the first place after age 21. BUT. I cannot stay inside in the summer. I refuse to completely avoid the sun. I think protective clothing is part of the answer: hats, sunbonnets, zinca, sunglasses, long flowy shirts (problem: long, flowy shirts have an SPF of about 2). But I have to figure out how much I am willing to risk and how much I am willing to avoid. I think I'm shifting over to the sun-avoidance side of things...gradually....

My kids? Sunscreen and hats. I think Vivian has gotten one pink sunburn in her life and I almost cried. I am obsessive about sunscreen for them. I think back to days at Yorktown beach rubbing gritty sandy sunscreen into their skin for the two-hour re-application. They're excellent sports about being chased down and coated. Yes, they both wear long-sleeved sun bathing shirts when swimming. they have dedicated sun hats that they're outgrowing. It's difficult because Vivian is much fairer-complected than Mazie is, so she gets attacked by me twice as often. I know her skin has less than 0 protection of its own.

I guess that's part of parenting - you pass the torch. I am passing the good skin torch. My skin is announcing that it's on its way out. I will do the best I can with what I have and keep the rest of me in ship-shape (as soon as I have time - right?). But my girls still have a shot at skin health, and I'm going to give them the best running start I can.

I think I'm done being rebellious about the sun. I love the way it feels and I love the way a "healthy glow" looks. But I know for certain that it's not actually healthy. My Uncle Terry once called my mom's winterized legs poking out from shorts, "white sticks." Here's to white sticks for me.