I want to disclose right away that I have very strong feelings on this subject. I have a history. I grew up in Miami Beach, pretty much ON the beach before anyone knew the sun wasn't good for you. As a result, I had my first basal cell skin cancer before I was 30. I had a second one 3 months ago. It's not pretty. But basal cell skin cancer couldn't kill me even if it wanted to. And it's not why I have such strong feelings.
That comes from the story of my mother, a tragic story I won't fully explain right now. But you know the ending, which is that my mother died at age 41. What I didn't mention, until now, is what she died from: malignant melanoma.
This is what John McCain had. And that is why my incredibly strong feelings about my mother are merging into my strong feelings about the election...making it almost impossible for me to type fast enough to keep up with the intensity of emotion flowing from my brain to my fingers on the keyboard...emotions about melanoma and politics that are creating....the perfect storm.
I can't resist saying that my desk already looks like the perfect storm. Because although I'm discussing the most serious of subjects and a real tragedy in my life, there is almost NOTHING too sacred to joke about. And being able to make light of this subject makes this the right moment for the "lighter" portion of my blog about skin....the tanning bed.
Turns out that underneath the glasses and all that moose fur, Sarah is a California girl.
Okay, I know it's cold and dark and dreary all winter in Alaska. And I don't really care that she paid with her own money. Although the blue collar women embracing her as one of their own might want to consider that she paid more for her tanning bed than they will earn in a year. But my real issue with the tanning bed is medical---and the message she is sending, by installing it in her home at the same time she was announcing Skin Cancer Awareness month. While the McCain handlers tutor her on the Bush Doctrine and the economy, they might want to add a little education on preventing skin cancer. Maybe not a big issue in Alaska yet, but it will be, especially considering the ozone layer Sarah doesn't seem to believe is disappearing. But I'll leave her to fry in her tanning bed for now; I have other fish to fry with her running mate.
Although I AM emotional about this issue, I will also try to be accurate, without providing statistics or scientific details. I have done a little research on McCain and melanoma, and the more I read, the more upset I get. I am convinced that John McCain is dangerous for America as malignant melanoma is dangerous for him.
Basal cell skin cancer, the kind I had, is the most common--and least dangerous--skin cancer. If you have to get cancer, that would be at the top of the list. Malignant melanoma is on the other end of the list---the kind you do NOT want. John McCain has had both. The best kind---the worst kind---and the kind in between. The man is a skin cancer magnet. And the American people are the ones at risk.
McCain had malignant melanoma not once, which is scary enough, but FOUR times. I don't presume to be an expert but McCain is not a slam dunk to serve four years and remain healthy. Now--leaving aside where that leaves us as Americans, i.e. with President Palin, we don't really know everything about the risks, and details of John McCain's medical status. Why not? We don't know because he has never released the last 8 years of his medical records.
Yes, a 72- year-old man--who wants the most stressful and important job in the world---who has a very high risk and questionable health history-- has left dangling some troubling questions. And it seems that very few people are pushing for the answers.
I just signed a petition on the internet, urging McCain to release his medical records. I signed even though it offends me that there is a need for a petition to force a man running for president to do the right thing. I signed even though I think it was a waste of my time.
He is stonewalling. Very successfully . For a man of honor (and I believe he WAS a man of honor) he seems to have sold his soul to get into the White House. If he is willing to blatantly lie about Sarah Palin's record, then you have to question whether he is willing to lie about his health.
I assume McCain has something to hide. But he's already too far down the road to back up. I am more angry with the press--for letting him get away with it.
Last spring, the McCain campaign allowed a few selected members of the media to come into a room and look through 1200 pages of medical records. They were not given much time to do this---only three hours. But there was yet another catch---NO PHONES, NO CAMERAS, NO COMPUTERS, NO COPYING ANY RECORDS. And that's it-- the end of the story on John McCain's health. In an election with so much at stake, why isn't the media pushing to uncover the rest of the information? Too busy talking about lipstick? Admittedly I'm emotional about it, but still I think it could be considered a coverup.
How appropriate--a coverup --what a skin cancer patient like McCain should be doing every time he goes outside-- to shield himself from the sun. (Which he's not doing.) Instead he is shielding us from the truth. And this is at the core of why I am so emotional about this---because my parents did the same thing to me.
Back then, in the sixties, cancer was such a forbidden subject that it was not discussed openly. If the word was mentioned, it was only in a hushed whisper. With regard to my mother, I never heard cancer mentioned at all.
With the best intentions, to shield their three children, my parents covered up the truth. They never told us our mother had malignant melanoma---and that she would die from it. We never found out the medical details-- until years later. And by keeping that secret, they ended up hurting us.
I think John McCain, like my parents, knows more than he is telling us. Hopefully his is not tragic, like my mother's story, but he is keeping some secrets about his medical condition from the American people. And because I've been there ,I believe that unless he comes clean with the whole truth, it's going to end up hurting us.
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Posted by: Beauty School | December 21, 2009 at 06:18 AM
"And being able to make light of this subject makes this the right moment for the "lighter" portion of my blog about skin", that's really good!
Kevin
Posted by: dermatology emr | September 08, 2010 at 05:37 AM