Base Tan?? REALLY?!!?

Alright....think you need a base tan? I used to think the same way. As a young person, as above in my prom picture with my twin sister, being TAN was the way to be! I grew up in a time when people tanned....I think it was even kind of a sport. How tan can you get? If you were not tan...well, time to lay out on the sand and COOK.

One year, I needed to keep a "BASE TAN" because it was winter. SO, a friend of mine got me a job at her brother's tanning salon. REALLY? A tanning salon in Southern California?? SERIOUSLY?? I used those death machines.

Let me show can happen to you while you are trying to maintain your tan or get a base tan in a tanning bed.

OK, this is me, 2 years ago. I can hardly look at these pictures without crying. I did 5 rounds of bio-chemotherapy. The 5 drugs used to save my life were IL-2, Interferon, Cisplatin, Vistplatin, and Temodar. These drugs were given to at the SAME TIME for 5 day stretches. I completed 3 rounds and had a break down in my doctor's office. I just could not take anymore. The drugs felt like glass shards entering my body. I would hardly eat 1/2 cup of applesauce in a 14 day period. I was dying. Either the cancer or the treatment was going to kill me.

SO, is a base tan worth it?According to SkinCancer.org

"No matter what you may hear at tanning salons, the cumulative damage caused by UV radiation can lead to premature skin aging (wrinkles, lax skin, brown spots, and more), as well as skin cancer. In fact, indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors."

I was stage IV M1c:   The tumor has metastasized to organs other than the lungs, and serum LDH is normal, OR  There are any distant metastases with elevated LDH

And survival rates?  According to AIM at Melanoma:

Why LDH Levels Are Important

Compared with the survival of patients with normal LDH levels, patients with abnormal LDH levels have significantly worse overall survival. The respective 1-, 2-, and 5 year survival rates were: (2)

Abnormal LDH - 33%, 18%, 10%

Well,I am still here!! 2 years in REMISSION, NED!!

I have my hair back!!  I have hips again!!  (not bony ones...lots to love kind!)

That is why I will never lose:

KEEP FIGHTING ALL YOU WARRIORS!!