A Christmas Idea That Keeps Living

A skin check! Or get that bothersome place removed (not frozen or shaved...removed and pathed)!

Not your usual suggestion and possibly not what you expected. It certainly won't fit under a tree. But I want you to be around next Christmas and the one after that. Having that skin check, just like an annual physical, can help ensure that happens.

Can't afford it? Not insured? Going to go in debt buying junk that will get broken, lost, rust, or suffer from rundown batteries and then shoved into the back of the closet never to be seen again?  Seriously, if you say you can't afford it, I say you can't afford not to. Find a way. Cut back on some of the frills, fluff, and froufrou and tell your family you're giving them you for another year.

Have a child that needs a skin check? Now's a good time for that. Again, it's probably not on any list they want Santa to see and fill, but, hey!, a skin check is good for the naughty and the nice.

And, please, if you need a place removed, get it removed and sent off to pathology. You know if there's something you've been watching grow, darken, change. If it's also bleeding, it really needs to come off asap! Scared of needles and procedures? Decide you like to live and you can do what you need to do. While you're being scared and waffling, if that place has any kind of cancer in it, that cancer is growing and possibly spreading.

Nobody wants to be told "You have melanoma," but if you have melanoma then those are the words you need to hear! Merry Christmas! Hearing those words may just save your life.

If you've ever had a tooth pulled as an adult, delivered a baby, or had any kind of surgery, then you can do this.

If you've never done any of that and are filled with dread, well, there will be needles and some pain, stitches, recuperation, but it's still a small price to pay to live.

It's a small price to pay to have a Merry Christmas this year and, hopefully, next year.

Parties, toys, technology gizmos, new clothes...cha-ching! Big bucks!

Skin check by someone who knows what they're doing...priceless.

Giving yourself a fighting chance by getting that place removed...priceless times infinity.

charis