I can no longer be a Sunshine Girl!

Yes I'm one of those that 25 years ago (man does that make me sound old or what?) used to fry myself out in the sun with my friends. We were obsessed. Obsessed meaning, laying on black roof so we get better rays, using that silver blanket reflector thing to lay on, using iodine and baby oil, butter, I think we even tried cocoa cola, and other things we heard would get us a better tan! The worse was one Memorial weekend that was still a little breezy out but I layed out in sweats, socks and bathing suit top, and I got wind burns on my chest! I had 2nd or 3rd degree burns with blisters covering my chest and it looked like raw hamburger and hurt like you know what! I left school to go to the dr. and he gave me pain killers and sauve to use on it. I couldn't certain things and had to wear a baggy t-shirt so it wouldn't touch it. Then when I was a senior in high school the tanning beds came out. I LOVED them! When I was in college I worked at a tanning and toning salon. When I was able to later in my adult years I bought my own tanning bed and had my husband build a special tanning room in our basement to fit it. But with the kids honestly I barely ever used it. One of my all time favorite things to do it to lay out by a lake, ocean, pool, backyard with a good book. I used to do this when the kids would nap. Well a couple of years ago I started noticing the signs of all that tanning. So I quit. I used sun screen but occasionally still tanning because I liked how it made me look and feel. I occasionally use the spray on tans but it's not the same as the sun.
well I went to the dermatologist this week for bumps on my face and she immediately noticed a tiny pink scar looking thing on my arm. Yup! Skin Cancer! It's the most common one, Superficial Basal cell skin carcinoma and luckily doesn't spread but I'm done with the sun! Scary! I will wear sun screen every time I set foot outside. My Dermatologist has the clearist, smoothest, prettiest skin I've ever seen! She is my motivation. Wish I thought of that 20 years ago! I'm not trying to make light of skin cancer. I am still a little in shock. Don't let unique looking spots go people! I saw some awful pictures online, and they were all so bad because the person ignored it and waiting on treatment. Mine didn't look bad at all and I hadn't even noticed it. Unfortunately people that get that have had one are at risk for more. I slathered on the sun screen before the soccer game tonight. A friend was kind to recommend some nice, natural self tanner. (remember the days of QT?) For now I'm just worried about my skin being exposed to any sun at all! AND all the pictures and stories I found online were of people 70 and older! That was a little depressing! Now I'm off to research the best sunscreen out there. This picture below isn't mine, but similar to what mine looked like except really only looked like the pink dot.