Journal

Welcome to our journal. Hopefully it is interesting, informative, and entertaining.

2006 highlights: Morocco Florence New Zealand Denis' Visit Sharon's Visit Brittany French Riviera or Visit our Ship's Log

Beginning May 2007 our Journal will continue to be maintained at www.LandPassages.com - we hope you will visit us there. Our archived journals can still be found at Journal Archives.

Sun Cautions for Cruisers - The biopsy of the 2 nodes containing malignant cells showed melanoma, a skin cancer that has the potential to go to several spots in the body. This has been an expensive and painful lesson about neglecting skin cancer in its early stages. The lessons learned (among others) are:

Minimize Sun Exposure - All sun exposure to the skin creates damage, often scrambling the genetic material so that it grows out of control - i.e. CANCER. So avoid midday sun, wear hats and long sleeves and long pants - particularly in the tropics. I will also add to use sunscreen, although I personally believe that prolonged use of sunscreen may prove to encourage skin cancer since it hides the obvious effects of the sun - time will tell on this one.
Treat All Lesions as Cancer - I have had perhaps 20 skin lesions removed by liquid nitrogen, cauterizing, and surgery over the last 20 years and my advise is to have all skin lesions removed surgically and a biopsy performed. It may be more expensive than squirting with a freeze bottle, but you never know when you have had malignant cells driven deeper into your skin.
Occult Primary - No primary source for this melanoma has been found since it was probably removed earlier with liquid nitrogen and therefore no testing was done to determine if it was a melanoma - thus lesson #2 above.
Kids Need Sunscreen Most - According to Sun Sense "Research suggests that if everyone used SPF15 sunscreen regularly at least until the age of 18, the number of people getting melanoma could be reduced by over 70%" - you adults are responsible for reducing melanoma risks in your children!

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