The Big C

Closing my eyes, I lifted my face into the warmth of the sun. The salty wind rushed over my bare skin. Skin covered only by my favorite two piece suit. I sat on the bow of our 52 foot Gulf Star sailboat as it cut through the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. It was truly my favorite place to hang out when growing up on that sailboat. There wasn't a better place to let your mind free and get away from family in the tight quarters of our boat in which we called home.

The years spent on our boat were the leading cause of my skin cancer. Basil or Melanoma, my body has no predigest to which one, and it shows up whenever and wherever it wants. Not like my fellow cancer waiting roommates, I am thirty, sometimes forty years their junior. Skin cancer didn't wait on me, nor did it have any formal announcement, it just arrived.

Hearing the doctor say the C word, "you have cancer" doesn't get easier, it's less shocking, but the C word is becoming a nuisance and it’s not quite as easy as people say. "Skin cancer is no big deal, you just have it cut out and it's gone." I can't tell you how many dozen times I've heard that statement. If only they could walk in a skin cancer patients shoes, once! Not that I wish the C word on anyone, no way!

Reading and hearing stories of people battling cancer, makes my encounters with the big C seem like a walk in the park. I honestly couldn't imagine being so brave and so courageous. Through the throbbing of my ear, recovering from having a third hole punched out if it and reconstructive surgery ahead, I feel like a wimp, and can only sit feeling helpless as I pray for all cancer patients. Wishing I could be more like the brave people who are fighting a much bigger battle! However, no cancer is simply a "walk in the park" and no one should invalidate you.

Welcoming the rest, I sit feeling blood running into my inner ear and hoping for a fast recovery, and praying this will be my last encounter with the big C. Closing my eyes my mind drifts as I dream of the sun on my face and the breeze across my body. But this time I'm protected wearing sun screen, new fashionable sun protected clothing and a hat!