If I had to choose a food to play me in my Food Network biography, Swiss Cheese would be reclining on the casting couch. She’d be dressed in just a whisper of Dijon mustard and accessorized by some lovely capers.

Yes, this is the time of day when I desperately need a snack, but more importantly it’s the time of year when I get my semi-annual skin check. With my freckled, fair complexion and decades of inadequate SPF leading to major childhood sunburns, each visit to my dermatologist becomes a rousing game of Whack-A-Mole. I’m currently sporting three biopsy sites, hence my Swiss Cheese casting call.

But a pound of prevention is worth ounces of flesh, especially when that flesh is ugly brown moles. I use my skin checks as opportunities to remind my friends and the internet to do it too. I didn’t earn the preventive medicine award at my medical school graduation for nothing.

One friend replied, “Don’t worry. I go to play the death sentence roulette every year.”

I replied, “Great, wait, wh-what!?!”

She explained, “I know there are different types of skin cancer, but I feel if they tell me I have melanoma, they’ll just be telling me how long I have left to spend with my kids.”

This woman is a smart cookie, how could she be missing the prevention part of the equation? Well, queries to friends and Facebook revealed she was not alone, but while her worry was distressing, at least she was getting checked. The answers that rocked me to my clinician core were the “Why bothers?”

Somewhere between “tanning beds are evil” and “sunscreen saves lives,” the message that skin checks are a staunch line of defense AGAINST death from melanoma has gotten lost.

THE REASON FOR DERMATOLOGIST SKIN CHECKS: So moles may be removed BEFORE they become cancerous and melanomas are found so early they can be CURED by excision.

Did you get the prevented and cured part? Good. Now embrace the dermatologist part because self-checks are not enough. Unless you are way better at yoga than me, I can only view about 50% of my body. Even if I could check out my own derriere, it wouldn’t matter because when I tested myself on 28 pictures of moles, I only picked the cancer four times. And, remember, I have an M.D.

So here is how you sleep at night. Go to your dermatologist and become familiar with your baseline. From that point on, look for the “ugly duckling” or the mole that doesn’t belong. Moles grouped together generally look alike, but you can have more than one pattern present on your body–for example, a dark pattern and a lighter pattern. Look for the odd duck in a grouping: a reddish one appearing in a cluster of dark ones or a black one appearing in a pattern of light tan ones. Take note and call your doctor if you see anything new or find a mole with irregular borders, scaling, bleeding, or itching.

You can also test your skin cancer IQ here.

When it comes to skin cancer, prevention is key.

• Stay covered up with hats, shirts, and sunglasses. There is great SPF protective clothing out there now. Find some here.
• Slather on sunscreen of at least SPF 15. This means applying the equivalent of a shot glass (two tablespoons) to your face and body, and reapplying at least every two hours.
• Avoid sun exposure between 10 am and 2 pm.
• Never use tanning beds.

However, the skin cancer you get today is from the exposure you had in your past. So have you scheduled that professional skin check yet? If you are still not convinced, here are a seven reasons to make that appointment today.

In the meantime, use measures to block the rays, self-exam and make your appointment to spot the “ugly duckling”, and know that prevention can stop skin cancer.

Now, embrace that pale is healthy and looking like Swiss Cheese for a few weeks is worth years with your family and friends.

-Ellen

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