Skin Stuff

I've noticed moles getting bigger, one in particular that's on my leg, right on the front of the shin for all to see when I dare to wear shorts. Anymore, I shy away from showing my gams because I've been blessed with varicose legs.

I inherited some great qualities from my mother, like excellent skin tone and a nice mouth, but also some things that are not so wonderful, including (but not limited to) big, ugly, raised, blue-gray veins that crisscross my legs like a deranged road map. I don't get those cute little pink spidery ones--mine are 8-lane interstates, and they're everywhere.

Back to the mole. So I have this mole on my shin and while it's still nice and round, it seems to be growing. Maybe it's just that my skin is stretching to accommodate my late 40s fat gain, but it's still concerning me just a bit. I got online and did some research like a dutiful little hypochondriac, and on one site it said that if your mole is bigger than a pencil eraser, you might want to have it checked out. So there I was at my office, my leg hitched up on my desk, my jeans rolled up, pressing the wrong end of a pencil into my leg. Sure enough, it's bigger.

The reason for all this paranoi is that someone very close to me has been diagnosed with skin cancer. Fortunately it's not melanoma, but unfortunately it's not basal cell variety either. It's a little more serious but with a 98 percent success rate when treated early. And I'm very confident it's early enough, but still a scare. I guess that's one more health concern we have to look forward to as we age.

Skin stuff. Please keep an eye on your epidermis, folks. It could save your life.