Wednesday 25 June 2008

the sun

Tuesday 24th June


The sun – ah yes, what would we do without it? Well, if you were a tomato in the UK, you’d most certainly not be a happy vegetable!! I personally would shoot myself, but that’s just me. I am an African at heart and I need to be WARM. HOT is even better. It seems to be impossible in the UK unless you have your butt hanging over a fire, and even then the front of you is always blue with cold...

But that’s not the point here [see? I am moaning AGAIN!! boring boring...] – the point is that when you are having chemo it seems to affect your skin.

What?? I have always been a person who tans very easily and I don’t burn – well, I don’t burn unless I am totally stupid. And usually I manage to avoid that. So, knowing that the chemo does some strange things, I have been timing myself if I am in the sun, ten minutes max – that is, I have been sitting in the shade, unless it’s a ten minute bit in the sun. But in Weymouth we were walking a lot, so I slapped on a load of that Factor 20 across my shoulders – oops. Bad plan – I burnt exactly where I put it!! Everywhere else was fine, so now I am extremely suspicious of suntan lotion...the rest of me had factor 2 and didn’t burn?? I think it might be because that’s where my hair has always been – long and hanging on my shoulders [imagine!! seems like another life now...long hair...what?]

So, what I would say is this – be VERY careful of the sun. No, I am not a doctor, but this is speaking from personal experience of chemo [no, I don’t care about the sun getting on me otherwise!!] Stay in the shade if you usually burn – if you don’t, time yourself and check you aren’t burning – I now have a piebald back! Yuck! Better to stay in the shade if you are even remotely concerned. Lucky for me, I am just peeling – tough skin! But if you have delicate skin, beware.. You could end up like a bacon butty!

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