Courtesy photo

By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Los Alamos

I read the words, before I heard them. I know what the last word means, yet I googled it the second I read it. I do wait for the time when someone might say, “it’s just skin cancer,” unsure if my response would be surly.

I do believe that if you learn a lesson, you should share it to save someone from learning it the hard way.

I’m not sure we ever bought sunscreen as a child … it would have been a rare luxury. If we did it was the white kind you put on your nose and it never rubbed into the skin, like diaper cream. Oh, did I mention that until I moved to New Mexico 30 years ago, I spent most of my life in Florida?

As an adult, I sometimes use sunscreen and often at least put it on the part in my hair, which at this altitude screams for sunscreen. That leads me to where they found the BCC, right at the tippy top of the noggin. I called it my top knot.

I received a referral to an Albuquerque location and after a short time on the phone, I was told these three things:

• I wouldn’t hear from anyone for about 2-3 weeks;
• I’d be lucky to get and appointment by the end of the summer; and
• If I needed a procedure, I’d be lucky to get it done by the end of December.

ABOLUTELY NOT! I thanked them for their time and said I’d call back to schedule once they got the referral. Then, I instantly called my primary and said, thinking about it until then would surely cause my demise and there must be another place to refer me.

I was then referred to Dr. Justin Green, here in the fabulous town of Los Alamos. “The little LA” not the big one. It took about 10 days to not only get an appointment, but to get the procedure done. Dr. Green and his fantastic staff including Pam, Christie, Mark the anesthesiologist and the surgical nurse AB. I did forget the name of one nurse, but I was under sedation.

My husband and I brought three beautiful boys into the world at Los Alamos Medical Center. I felt I could also trust them with this journey. Why leave the convenience and safety of our little neck of the woods for months of waiting, hours of driving and more? A follow up the very next week and now just waiting for stitches to come out. Oh, and no cancer in the margins.

It goes back to how long did I let that spot on my head irritate me? I thought it was an allergy, had a cream for it, froze it off, but it just wouldn’t heal. One day, I said to PA-C Michaela Bailly, can you cut this thing off and drop a stitch in it so it will heal? She and her delightful nurse, I will find out her name because I can’t use the sedation line, sent it off to be checked out and it was cancer.

Thank you, Ms. Bailly, for taking a few minutes to hear your patient and immediately act upon her concern. Perhaps, you changed the trajectory of my life, or of a child that has a parent reading this.

Skin cancer is a lifetime accumulation of sun. I may have thought it was those 60+ hours in the sun with drive thru, outdoor COVID and flu vaccines over the last three years, but it starts with the girl on the beach in her late teens and 20s. I promise if I had that photo it would run with this article, but instead, I end with this: buy everyone a hat. I bought one as a “treat” to myself post-surgery. Facebook has a place called, We Rate Dogs. “Tell your dog I said hi” is their way of giving back to animals in need. It does something kind for animals AND it will be a while before my hair grows back.