Super Topo Thread review: Aug.11

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 11, 2010 - 09:58am PT
Paul here.

I hardly ever climbed with my shirt off. If not in the shade, I used sunblock 60% of the time. I thought I was aware.

I lived in Brazil when I was 12-13. Got several lobster burns there.

Spent a lot of time outside. I was a mountaineering, backpacking, rockclimbing guide off and on.

Hung off a lot of cliffs in the sun bolting sport routes in Humboldt and other caolifornia locations.

But the first mole was on my right thigh, just below the shorts line. Only as big as a pinky nail. It was always there as far as I can remember. Then one day I noticed it looked scratched and puffy. Turned out it was Stage II Melanoma, and had already began to burrow into my lymph nodes.

An operation removed the mole, as well as nodes in my groin. They said all clear.

Six years later it came back. The cancer can lie in wait for years. It can bypass some nodes and lodge in others. Its liquid death, guys.

I'm a pale male, for sure. But almost everyone is vulnerable.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE I CAN GIVE: CHECK YOUR MOLES. IF IN DOUBT, CUT IT OUT. GET IT OFF OF YOU.
The small expense of removal is insurance against unexspected early death.
I know, you're broke, don't have insurance, are an optimist. Shut up! Cut it off!