Be Careful with the Suntan Lotion
(To read my cancer story from the beginning start here – April / May 2018 – You Have Cancer)
June 2019 and the weather was similar to when I was in hospital July/August 2018, a bit of a heatwave.
When I was in my teens early 20’s, even 30’s (before I got fat) I didn’t need much of an excuse to get my top off and get out in the sun.
Well here I was back to the same weight I was at 19, the sun was shining, I was half way through a good book and the deckchair in the garden was calling.
Knowing I had to be careful of direct sunlight due to my radiotherapy I got myself a nice floppy sun hat and some factor 50 sun tan lotion which I liberally applied to my face and neck.
I also thought I better put a bit on my tummy scar and a bit round the hole left from where my PEG was fitted
So there I was stripped to the waist sat out in the sun reading my book, the problem was I was so engrossed in my book I wasn’t keeping an eye on the time, when there was a knock on the window and there was my wife saying “don’t you think you’ve been out in the sun a bit long?”
I checked the time and what I thought was only about 20 minutes, was over an hour, so I thought I better go back in.
Initially I didn’t think much of it until a few hours later when I noticed how red I was going, but worse than that was the splodgy white bits.
I had a white line along my belly, a big round splodge round my PEG hole a white half front right shoulder and even a few finger marks where I’d obviously touched myself with fingers full of suntan lotion.
Over the coming days my red bits got redder and my white bits stayed white
I had never realised until then just how good the suntan lotion must be
I thought about going back out with no lotion on my white bits, but my red bits were so burnt I thought I better not
Other the next few weeks the red bits browned off nicely but the white bits remained white and really stuck out basically as though I had vitiligo
So much for showing off my new slim physique this summer, I might as well still be fat, I thought 🙁
My Cancer story continues here – Coming soon… (hopefully before end of January 2020)