This Everyday Habit Gave Me Cancer—And Nearly Ruined My Face

When Janet, 42, suddenly noticed a bump on the side of her nose while looking in the mirror, she assumed it was a harmless pimple. Two days later, things got weird, the iHeartRadio host in Oklahoma City tells Reader’s Digest: “It just sort of self-exploded, and then it began bleeding excessively,” she recalls.

For the next three weeks, Janet watched as the spot on her face scabbed over and bled repeatedly. Finally, her husband convinced her to go to the doctor. “He’s a firefighter, so he’s seen everything. I really thought the doctor was going to laugh that I came in for a zit,” she explains. To her disbelief, her doctor referred her to a dermatologist. “My primary care doctor said he was willing to bet I had basal cell carcinoma. The dermatologist confirmed it with a biopsy. I was shocked,” she says. Make sure you know the different skin cancer symptoms when you’re checking your own body.

A tanning bed aficionado since her teens and an avid runner who disregarded sunscreen, Janet was especially susceptible to skin cancer—which happens to be the most common type of cancer. “I begged my mom to sign permission slips for tanning beds when I was 16, and I tanned before every vacation. Looking back, I’m not surprised I got it,” she explains. Tanning and not using sunscreen are just two common cancer risks—don’t ignore these surprising skin cancer risks either.

After undergoing a separate surgery to remove a dime-sized chunk of her nose, Janet’s next stop was a plastic surgeon to restore her appearance. Her options were limited: “A skin graft isn’t desirable on the face because the color never matches,” she says. “My doctor said I wouldn’t be satisfied with it, and recommended the flap surgery instead.” For this procedure, the surgeon would transfer skin from a discrete spot on her forehead to patch her nose and then—prepare yourself—route a vein from her forehead to supply the patch until the skin can survive on its own. And that vein is left hanging from the forehead and connected to the nose in a sort of loop in front of her face. Janet asked her surgeon what the recovery was like. “He said that I could return [to work] after a few days, but most people take three weeks off to heal because they don’t want to leave the house looking that way,” she recalls.

Janet chose the flap surgery and immediately afterward understood why most people take the three weeks at home. “I cried almost every day, it was such a painful open wound—and emotionally it was just a very dark time,” she recalls. “I tried to go shopping at Target, and people would just stare—or worse—leave the aisle entirely,” she says. Tired of the curious stares from strangers, and even those of friends, Janet went “live” on Facebook to explain her new look. “After the video, I received so many notes from others undergoing the same treatment who felt comforted that they weren’t alone,” she recalls. It was exactly the push she needed to become more vocal about her diagnosis. “It’s heartbreaking to me to think that others going through this feel like they need to hide,” she explains.

After Janet had her final stitches and the vein removed, she says, “I remember leaving the doctor’s office and feeling like I made it.” Today, Janet is cancer-free and visits her dermatologist twice a year. She has partnered with the Miles Against Melanoma Foundation and has found educating others to be rewarding. Her words of encouragement to those facing a skin cancer diagnosis are simple, yet memorable: “You will feel the sunshine on your face again—just wear your sunscreen.” That being said, make sure you know these 51 things dermatologists need you to know about skin cancer.

 

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8 Times You Should Call 911—And 7 Times You Shouldn’t

Call: You or someone else is experiencing a severe allergic reaction

If anyone begins showing signs of a severe allergic reaction—increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, swelling tongue—call 911. Severe allergic reactions can lead to death quickly—in under an hour—so you may not have enough time to get to the emergency department. Emergency responders can give immediate treatment with epinephrine.

“Parents and caregivers are not trained medical professionals, so making a medical decision as to whether an allergic reaction is 911-worthy can be challenging,” says Gerald Lavandosky, MD a pediatric critical care doctor at Pediatric Critical Care of South Florida. “Factors that need to be considered when calling 911 include distance to the nearest emergency department, traffic, weather conditions, and transportation capabilities of the family.” Dr. Lavandosky says mild allergic reactions can be brought to a doctor’s office or emergency department by a family member, but when respiratory symptoms, swelling of the mouth, drooling, or difficulty breathing show up, it’s time to call 911.

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What to Do When You Find a Tick in Your House

An innocent walk through the woods with your pup can result in ticks entering your home. While many varieties of ticks aren’t prone to making a home indoors (deer ticks typically die within 24 hours, and can only survive short periods in places where moisture content is less than around 90 percent, and many species of ticks prefer to lay eggs on the soil surface and don’t reproduce indoors), brown dog ticks, for example, do. Ticks are detrimental, sure, but these 12 most dangerous bugs that you need to look out for this summer wreak their own havoc. So, if you find a tick in your house, of course you should get rid of it but be sure to then keep these things in mind.

1. Check yourself and your family.

A long walk in the woods with Fido and the family on a beautiful fall day can result in ticks hitchhiking their way into your home via your clothing and the dog’s fur. Be sure everyone wears clothing that covers their skin. Also, be sure to carefully check your hair and your pet’s fur! Comb through your dog’s fur, and check for any bumps. Also, check your pet’s feet (including between the toes), inside their ears, and around the face and neck. Have an outdoor cat? You’ll want to check them every time they come in! Your pets and ticks can’t talk, but here are 13 things a tick wouldn’t tell you to avoid its bite.

2. Repair and seal any crevices or gaps.

Most ticks have no interest in coming indoors. However, brown dog ticks can be enticed indoors through small cracks and crevices in homes that aren’t well maintained. If this happens and ticks start laying eggs, you could have a full-blown infestation on your hands. So, this is one more reason to be diligent with your efforts to seal up any and all cracks and openings in your home’s exterior.

3. Use tick treatments.

For an extra dose of safety, be sure to prevent ticks from clinging to your animals in the first place by using tick collars and spot-on treatments.

4. Modify your landscape.

To keep ticks out of your home, you’ll want to keep them out of your yard. The Verona (NJ) Environmental Commission suggests keeping your lawn mowed to a height of 3 inches, getting rid of brush, weeds, leaf litter and other debris, raking up leaf litter and cutting down underbrush for several feet into the woods, if your yard ends at a woods. Also, eliminate densely planted beds near your house. The commission also suggests using wood chips or gravel to create a barrier between wooded areas where ticks are common and your lawn and moving woodpiles, bird feeders and birdbaths far from your home to keep mice and chipmunks, which are hosts for ticks, away.

5. Vacuum like you mean it!

Suck up any ticks in your home with a vacuum. The device will not only pick up the ones you see, but ticks in all life stages. Use it especially in places frequented by your outdoor animals, as well as your carpets, rugs and furniture.

6. Scatter diatomaceous earth.

According to the Verona Environmental Commission, diatomaceous earth (DE) is a safe alternative to boric acid, which, if ingested, is toxic! If you want to go the natural route, here are 10 chemical-free ways to get rid of household pests. Rake DE into the carpet, and get the dust into the corners of any uncarpeted floors. Remove after a week. DE is made up of tiny fossilized aquatic organisms that pierce the tick’s outer layer as it crawls over the fine powder, dehydrating the tick without using toxic pesticides.

7. Dry clothes, then wash them.

According to the AARP, after coming indoors after spending time outside, immediately take off your clothes and throw them in the dryer first. This will dry them out and kill any ticks that are on the clothes, in addition, try these 9 ways to avoid a tick bite this summer. Leave the clothes in the dryer on high for 15 minutes, and then wash them.

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