Stealth Porn and Carcinoma

So, my blog hits have really been flagging.  Not sure why--maybe I'm just not as interesting anymore?  However, just because I'd like more folks reading doesn't mean I'm happy with any ol' hits that come my way.

Last night, in a matter of minutes, I took 49 hits.  I knew, I absolutely knew.  I pulled up my stats to check, and, sure enough, all of those hits came from a porn site.  Not an obvious porn site, but rather one with a very innocent name, so I screwed up and clicked the link and BAM, full spreadshot, took up pretty much my whole 24 inch screen.  Being wicked quick, I had that page closed before my 15 year old could even look up.  And then I loaded up Malwarebytes and did a full scan.

People suck.

How does that happen, though?  I understand how one or two porn hits happen, but 49 in the space of a few minutes?  How does that happen?  Is someone who dislikes my stuff feeding my web address into a porn site?  If someone "gets" that, please leave a comment, let me know!

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Had Charlie at training last night.  The two new bags of Zuke's training treats (Wild Rabbit and Salmon)?  He hated them.  Seriously, he wouldn't work for them, he wouldn't even eat them--he accidentally got some in his mouth and rolled them around a bit before spitting them back out.  We wound up giving them to the trainers as spares for folks who run out.  He likes the Zukes Chicken, and will work for those until he's no longer famished, and then he's all done with those, too. What he DOES love and will work for without fail?  Even if he's full?

This, which the trainers shared a bit with us:  

Yes, it's Dick Van Patten's company.  Yes, he's had products from them before.  Yes, I think it's weird that the guy from Eight is Enough is pushing dog food.  

And yes, it contains wheat, which we avoid in dog foods (along with corn) because Cairns are prone to grain-inspired skin problems.  But we're not looking to use this as a regular source of nutrition, but rather as a highly desired treat to inspire his total attention during training.  And for that?  The stuff's magical.  We don't even have to GIVE him any--just having it in the hand and letting him lick at the hand is enough to keep him working.  So we'll be grabbing a "tube" before the next training session.

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So, a friend posted a link to a "natural" diaper company the other day, one offering a "free" sample pack (for $5.95 shipping, lol).  I took a look at the company's site, and the greenwashing was astounding.  The big claim?  The these diapers and wipes are "made with organic and natural materials."  Oh, my.

Anything that tells you it's made with "organic AND . . . " anything isn't organic.  By that standard, I could throw organically grown raisins in a box of GMO Corn Flakes and put the words "made with organic and . . ." and be in the right, legally.  And the claim "natural?"  Means NOTHING.  Seriously, you could package uranium, arsenic, and dog turds as "natural."  Because they are.  It doesn't mean they're "good," it doesn't mean they're "healthy," and it sure doesn't mean they're ORGANIC.

Maybe this diaper company is the best of the best, but their site reads like the worst kind of greenwash.  I try to be sensitive to that, because I DO want to do better, I DO want to be "greener," but corporations have people a lot smarter than me dreaming up the language for describing their products in ways meant to pull in folks like me and fool us into buying things perhaps not so green.

So be careful out there!

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Back to the subject of folks who read my blog and what brings them here?  I noticed that one of the search terms used more than once was "Actinic Keratosis vs Basal Cell Carcinoma."  While I've blogged about both things, I don't think I've ever blogged about the qualities of them, compared and/or contrasted.

So I'm going to do that.  Maybe it'll help someone.

First off, I never mistook my basal cell for anything but basal.  I felt pretty confident that's what it was when I first noticed it.  Yes, I waited a few months to see if it would go away, but pretty much knew in the back of my mind that's what it was.  Just like that stupid, tiny spot on my forehead over my left eye that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  Yeah, I'll see someone about it soon.  

Anyway, the basal cell on my arm?  Nothing like an actinic keratosis.  In fact, Actinic Keratoses (correct pluralization there?) don't ever  progress to become basal cell carcinomas.  They do, however, sometimes progress to become squamous cell carcinomas, as the one on my nose did.  

The differences I experienced?  Well, actinic keratosis (and the eventual squamous cell carcinoma) had a crustiness to it.  It would crust up, feel raw if I scraped the crust off, and had a special sort of tingle/sting to it.  It would eventually heal over for a short time, only to come back again, but that odd, tingly feeling, the weird sting when touched, never went away, even when it was healed over.  

The basal cell, on the other hand, wasn't crusty.  It was flaky, looked much like the spot where a scab has come off to reveal healed skin beneath.  You know, slightly off-color, a little bit of flaky dead skin around the edges?  No sting, no tingle, no pain or ooze.  Just flaky.

Here, let me see if I can find some pictures:

Actinic Keratosis

A precancerous condition which can develop into:

Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Compared to:

Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma

Understand, now, that some basals don't look like that.  Some look more like the typical round mole:  

Nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma

Some are pigmented:  

Pigmented Basal Cell Carcinoma

And some, very rare (fewer than one percent) become giant.  Terrifyingly, lethally so if not caught early.  And I'm not going to show any of those.

In a nutshell, if you had to pick the skin cancer you want?  Pick basal cell carcinoma--it's normally so uninvasive and easily dealt with that some dermatologists and researchers hesitate to call it a cancer.  It's almost never aggressive, it almost never spreads, and, once removed, it rarely comes back.  Squamous, on the other hand, while more easily treated and less often metastatic than, say, melanoma or Merkel Cell, can be more aggressive, is more likely to come back, and is more likely to metastasize than Basal.  So, if you find yourself faced with the choice, choose Basal.

Or, instead, choose to use sunscreen, limit sun exposure, wear a hat, and take care of your skin by staying out of the sun during the most damaging hours (between around 10 a.m. and 4 p/m.).  Seriously.  I've been sawed at twice now, had Actinic Keratoses "frozen" off my face three times (so far), and I'm pretty sure I have another one brewing, as I mentioned earlier.  Don't do that to yourself, and don't do it to your kids.  Slather them in sunblock and teach them about skin cancer.

Oh, and because I feel like I should?  I'm not a doctor.  I probably COULD be a doctor, but I'm not.  So if you see a mole changing, if you have a spot appear that doesn't heal, doesn't go away, or heals, then comes back, then heals again, then comes back (you get the point), go see a dermatologist.  Sooner rather than later.  This goes for lumps, bumps, and other inexplicable things popping up on your skin that are new and unexplained.  Do it.  Because skin cancers?  Are pretty curable when they're caught early and treated.  So catch them early.

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And that's that.  I think on Monday I'll arrange all the pictures of my latest cancer and post them.  I'm not happy with how the scar is looking, and I'm not happy with the hard, ouchie white thing that I pulled out of it last night--I'd say the remnant of a suture, but those were blackish-blue.  Hmmm.  

An update here:  the landlord is booting us, has given us 60 days notice to vacate.  This isn't an eviction--he says we're the best tenants he's ever had, has offered a glowing reference.  But he's selling, and he needs us out so he can do that.  Which leaves us utterly screwed and possibly facing homelessness.  Truly.  So please.

Three Cheers for Basal Cell Carcinoma!

The jolliest and most friendly of the skin cancers!

Yeah, I called the dermatologist today (since they didn't call me).  It's a "superficial" basal cell (who knew cancer could be superficial?  Positively trivial, it is!).  They gave me the choice  of using Aldara (a cream that super-charges your immune system to attack the cancer, leaving your skin in the area a disaster for a couple of months, but pretty effective AND pretty expensive, even after insurance) or having it excised (a lot cheaper, even more effective, but there's the whole ouchie-cutting/scar/infection thing). I think I've decided on the Aldara (for science's sake--I've always wondered how well it works), but no way we're dropping that cash right now.  I said, "So, if this is so minor a thing, can I wait a couple of months?"  She said yes, there was no rush.

No rush, babe--it's just cancer, but it's one of those silly, superficial ones.

My fear?  That I'm doing the "skin cancer sample pack" gig.  I've already done squamous cell and basal cell. Please, I'd just as soon skip the melanoma and Merkel cell.  Thanks anyway.

Lesson here's a simple one--don't sunbathe.  Don't hang out in tanning beds.  By the time you figure out that doing those things are stupid,  it's quite likely too late. So make sure your KIDS don't do those things.  Slather them in sunscreen.  Make them wear hats.  Slather and hat yourself, too, but know that, while preventing future damage is good, you can't undo the stupid of your teenage years.  You can't undo that horrendous sunburn your mom let you get when you were seven when she left you basting in a wading pool for four hours in the middle of summer.  Can't undo the damage done when you mistook cocoa butter for sunscreen when you were ten and practically burned off your nose (the same nose gone squamous 34 years later).  But you can keep it from  happening again.  And that's something.

Here's an amazing story on Huffpo (but it's been in a lot of places) about a truck driver whose left side shows the ravages of sun exposure, while his right, which was shaded, is smooth.  It's dramatic.

Going to put my new plantar fasciitis inserts in my new shoes.  I have a pair in my old Asics Gel-Kanbarras, but don't want to be pulling them from pair to pair.  My only complaint about these insoles (they're made by Profoot) is that they very fronts get sort of weak and lose their fit/form because they're so thin up front.  Doesn't detract from the function, though--these inserts have drastically improved my plantar fasciitis.

Drastically!

So putting these:

.  

Into these:

Makes this: 

Feel a whole lot better.  Did for me, anyway.  I know nothing's a cure-all, but these inserts made a difference when nothing else was.  

Well, didn't mean for this to be a health segment.  Guess that's just where I am today.  No news on Epinions and the payout.  My money (har-de-har) is on the haves getting their money back and the rest of us being relegated back to the bottom of the heap, losing the nice (though modest) increase we thought we'd earned.  One of them actually posted that he doesn't care what anyone else earns, he only cares about his own earnings.  I believe, rephrased, that would be, "I got mine, screw all y'all."  Trying not to be too disappointed.  Sure was nice, for just a minute, to feel like maybe I wasn't bottom of the pile.