The phone call
Apr 12, 2013, 3:18 PM | Updated: Jul 26, 2024, 1:15 pm
This is Nurse (so-and-so) with Dr. (so-and-so’s) office. Is Doug Franz there?”
“This is his wife and you are authorized to speak to me about Doug.”
“We need to schedule an appointment for your husband to have a procedure done. The biopsy shows that it is cancerous.”
It’s a very weird feeling finding out you have skin cancer. You know it’s real cancer and people have died from it. You also know there’s no chemo or radiation so it’s not even close to the pain that other cancer patients have endured and suffered.
There’s an old line that it’s a minor procedure unless it’s done to you. Almost everyone in the country has had it or knows someone that has had skin cancer. The catch for me, is now I have it. I have a spot the size of a nickel on my back. It will be dug out, painfully. There’s a logical voice inside that says nothing is going to happen. Yet these few paragraphs have taken me two hours to write so, obviously, I’m not all about logic right now.
It’s a disease developed over time. All those shirtless bike rides to the city pool. All those pick-up basketball games when I was a “skin.” All those times I mowed the grass wearing only shorts and a Montreal Expos plastic batting helmet. I have skin cancer because I didn’t respect skin cancer. I will now.
Every remote I’ll have sun block with me. Every youth soccer game I’ll smell drenching spray. If you’re in the golf cart with me, I’ll probably spray you down, too.
I didn’t really want to say anything because I’ve been raised that men keep their mouths shut and deal with their own issues privately.
However, I figured if you read this and put extra sun screen on your child, it’s worth it.
