I'm sorry Jimmie Johnson: I was a cancer snob
Wear sunblock kids. I've spent the morning on a table having Basal Cell Carcinoma cut out of my shoulder.
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) June 5, 2017
Monday, I heard the news that Nascar racing legend Jimmie Johnson was having cancer surgery on his shoulder. My first thought was damn, he has Melanoma. Then I read the above tweet. My thinking changed...and I wrong. I thought okay he has a Basil Cell Carcinoma. A little skin cancer. No big deal. A lot of people get them and they get removed with little trouble. At least it's not Melanoma. And yes, there's something to be said for this. But I did a little research because knowledge on this topic is a good thing. Basil Cell Carcinoma is classified as a nonmelanoma cancer and it rarely spreads to other parts of the body. The keywords to know here are cancer and rarely. So while I was downplaying his situation, Johnson did indeed have cancer, which is never a good thing no matter what. Plus, while rarely sounds good, it probably doesn't sound that good to the ones who did have it spread. I used to think there were cancer rankings. Seriously, I really did. Lung, Pancreatic, Ovarian and every childhood form of the disease ranked at the top. Skin cancers were at the bottom...far below. I had no idea just how dangerous they were. I learned fast after being diagnosed with Melanoma. It only takes a couple of people dying of it to speed up the learning process. So I stopped making rating lists about a topic this dangerous and serious. At least I thought I did. In the skin cancer world, in my mind it was Melanoma and then the rest. But the numbers say otherwise. There are almost 5.5 million new cases of basil squamous cell carcinomas diagnosed each year. Far more than the 75,000/year new cases of Melanoma. Even though Melanoma is far more dangerous, you can't take the other two lightly. The key, as with most cancers, is to find them early. To Jimmie Johnson, I apologize and hope you're doing well. To everyone else with whatever kind of skin cancer you may have, I hope you're doing well, too. Please do as Jimmie says in his tweet, "Wear sunscreen, kids." Related post: How to protect yourself against Melanoma Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.