Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Not such good news...my arm

As some of you know, I had 3 little melanomas bubble up on my left arm about 7 years ago. They came up overnight and I took one look at them and my heart sank! Fortunately, I immediately went to my own doctor, Dr. Carol Renke, and she cut them out, sent them in for a biopsy, and they were confirmed as melanomas. I went in for the "deep cut" and we caught them in time. So, when I noticed another little red lump (with no black, however), I went back to my own doctor for a "look-see". She confirmed that it looked like skin cancer and offered to burn it off, but was out of nitrogen. So, yesterday afternoon I went to the dermatologist's office and there they cut it out and are sending it in for a biopsy to determine what kind of skin cancer it is. It is NOT melanoma, so that's a relief. And, being blonde-haired and blue-eyed, I always have to cover up and slater on sunscreen! I always wear my hat and I usually wear a long-sleeved blue denim shirt. I find that a men's large denim shirt is a good fit for me. It is loose enough that I can do my chores and work around the horses. I also have found that sunscreen just doesn't work well around the horses. First, they smell it. Second, most of them are GREASY. Does anyone know one that isn't GREASY? Finally, sunscreens gather all the dust and dirt and hay particles and pretty soon, I look like a scarecrow! So, I prefer a long-sleeved, high necked denim shirt. Denim is a good sunscreen itself and my dermatologist actually said that he prefers clothing to any sunscreen! I LIKE that guy! So, I'm on pins and needles until the results come back. Please send "happy thoughts" my way, if you can. Thank you!

7 comments:

Cactus Jack Splash said...

Praying for good results.

Linda said...

Good for you for seeing it so quickly and getting right to the doctor!!! If you do that, you're usually okay. Sending you best wishes and lots of happy thoughts!! I hope you hear back soon.

Mikey said...

Oh man, I am praying for you. I hope it's not anything serious. I use the kids spray on sunscreen, I forget what the spf is but it's high. I like the spray on, it's less greasy anyway... and easy to use.

Anonymous said...

Sending good thoughts!

Katharine Swan said...

There was an actually an article a couple of years ago that confirmed that sunscreen doesn't work -- it's simply not powerful enough. The article said the same thing as your dermatologist -- nothing beats a long-sleeved shirt!

Gail said...

Healing thoughts attached to this comment!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Hang in there. Thinking of you and sending positive thoughts and prayers.

(((hugs)))
~Lisa