Speaker 1: Back in twenty fifteen, Jackie Smith was fresh out of
Speaker 1: college at just twenty one years old. She was so
Speaker 1: excited to start her life, but there was an issue
Speaker 1: with her skin that was concerning her. She struggled to
Speaker 1: be properly diagnosed until one day she received surprising and
Speaker 1: devastating news.
Speaker 2: I could still remember his face when he walked in
Speaker 2: the room. It was very solemn, and he said, Jackie,
Speaker 2: you have stage three melanoma. And that was something that
Speaker 2: was completely shocking because you don't see someone that looks
Speaker 2: like this usually with melanoma at all, and then for
Speaker 2: it to be stage three, How did this happen?
Speaker 3: Hi, guys, and welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Berry and this is skin Querries, a show
Speaker 1: all about our skin and its health.
Speaker 3: A little bit about me.
Speaker 1: I create content online and irl, mostly around plant based cooking,
Speaker 1: intuitive eating, and all things wellness. Basically, feeling good is
Speaker 1: at the core of everything I do, and I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to see how that relates to our skin as
Speaker 1: we grow in age. Our skin is really a record
Speaker 1: of a life well lived, because there isn't one body
Speaker 1: part that I could think of that reflects our well
Speaker 1: being as clearly as our skin. Our habits, lifestyle and
Speaker 1: conditions play a major role in how it looks and feels.
Speaker 1: And because our skin is such a huge factor in
Speaker 1: how the world sees us, it can affect how we
Speaker 1: see ourselves. You may have come to this show because
Speaker 1: you've had your own skin challenges.
Speaker 3: Let's face it, most of us have.
Speaker 1: So let's go on this journey together to really understand
Speaker 1: what's going on with our skin. Let's unravel the mysteries
Speaker 1: happening inside and out. We're going to hear from experts, doctors,
Speaker 1: and people who have extraordinary stories to share about skin
Speaker 1: health and the power of understanding what's happening below the surface.
Speaker 1: One of these stories comes from Jackie, who you heard
Speaker 1: off the top of the show.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk.
Speaker 1: To her about her experiences with cancer and her relationship
Speaker 1: to the sun. Now we'll also hear from a dermatologist
Speaker 1: who's going to guide us through all things sun protection.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get into it. Welcome to Skin Querries.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest, guys, I love the sun
Speaker 1: for me. It's such a great source of natural endorphins,
Speaker 1: energy and such a mood booster. The way I get
Speaker 1: my daily dose of sunshine is usually walking my kids
Speaker 1: to school in the morning. In the summer, we'll go
Speaker 1: to the beach and I try to stay out of
Speaker 1: the sun during the midday hours. I'll go in the
Speaker 1: morning with my family or in the afternoon to make
Speaker 1: sure that we're not getting those really strong rays. As
Speaker 1: I'm getting older, the more I understand how important it
Speaker 1: is to practice safe habits and encourage my kids.
Speaker 4: To do the same.
Speaker 1: I have to admit I wasn't always this way growing
Speaker 1: up in New Jersey. I grew up going to the
Speaker 1: tanning salon and going with my friends a few times
Speaker 1: a week. I actually cringe to think about it, but
Speaker 1: that is what you did in the nineties in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I remember going to Cancun on spring break and getting
Speaker 1: super crisp, flathering on the baby oil and doing everything
Speaker 1: I could to get as tan as possible. And though
Speaker 1: I'd like to think times have changed and we've all
Speaker 1: moved on from getting cooked in the sun, after talking
Speaker 1: to a lot of people, it seems a relationship still
Speaker 1: remains a bit complicated.
Speaker 3: I love the sun, but sometimes it doesn't love me.
Speaker 5: After the first day of senior year, I went to
Speaker 5: like my friend's house and me late in the sun
Speaker 5: all day, and then for the first week of school,
Speaker 5: I had in sunburned eyelids.
Speaker 3: I didn't put sunshurn on my eyelids.
Speaker 5: I didn't know, so I was kind of in the
Speaker 5: sun for like four hours. And when I came back
Speaker 5: from this trip, I noticed had like a bunch of
Speaker 5: freckles on my nose, and like the nose part kind
Speaker 5: of freaked me out. I never dealt with this before.
Speaker 5: I didn't realize the sun can impact my skin so
Speaker 5: much like that. I think I just took it for
Speaker 5: granted that sun protection is very underrated.
Speaker 4: I don't want to see sunscreen because that's a brown girl.
Speaker 5: I feel like I eat sunscreens always.
Speaker 1: Like people are still not consistently wearing their sunscreen, but
Speaker 1: you could hear in their voice they know better. Today,
Speaker 1: on our first episode, we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: sun and the damage it does to our skin and
Speaker 1: learn about best practices for our skin and our health.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to chat with our first guest, Jackie Smith.
Speaker 3: You're from New Jersey.
Speaker 6: I am from Jersey. You're from North Jersey.
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 6: I'm from Hackensack, I'm from Anglewood.
Speaker 3: We're like name.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, was a detective and Englewood for thirty years.
Speaker 1: So Jackie is here because she's kindly agreed to take
Speaker 1: us through her story.
Speaker 2: So I meant two times stage three melanoma survivor over
Speaker 2: the last twenty years. Believe it or not, it's been
Speaker 2: twenty years since I was initially diagnosed with stage three melanoma,
Speaker 2: and during that time, I've volunteered and worked in patient
Speaker 2: advocacy and health policy. I'm really trying to make strives
Speaker 2: for not only people living with melanoma, but for all
Speaker 2: people affected by cancer.
Speaker 1: It's safe to say that none of us can ever
Speaker 1: prepare ourselves for a diagnosis like Jackie's. And even more so,
Speaker 1: while she was in her early twenties about to finish
Speaker 1: her undergrad degree.
Speaker 2: This lump in my bikini line. No one seemed to
Speaker 2: think it was anything serious. So I'd go to the
Speaker 2: health center. They'd say it was an inflamed hair follicle
Speaker 2: or something minor. They told me to take a sitz bath,
Speaker 2: something that at that point I didn't even know what
Speaker 2: that was, you know, So you're like trying to figure
Speaker 2: out things. But inside I knew it was something serious,
Speaker 2: but no one seemed to think that it was because
Speaker 2: I was young, and was there something about your intuition
Speaker 2: that really led you to pursue this. I'm one of
Speaker 2: those people who need answers and I need things to
Speaker 2: make sense. So I know some of us will bury
Speaker 2: our heads in the sand. That's not me. So I
Speaker 2: kept going back because it just didn't seem right, and
Speaker 2: I knew it was not an inflamed hair follicle. It
Speaker 2: was a lump that was underneath the skin layer, and
Speaker 2: when I detected it, it was about the size.
Speaker 6: Of an almond.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's not normal, right, And as much as
Speaker 2: I wanted to believe it was, I knew it wasn't.
Speaker 2: Because I need answers, I kept going back until I
Speaker 2: felt that I had a sufficient and correct answer to
Speaker 2: that question.
Speaker 1: And how many times did you have to go to
Speaker 1: the doctor before you were diagnosed?
Speaker 6: Countless? Honestly I went at least four times.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Fortunately Jackie managed to beat the odds. It was a
Speaker 1: chance encounter that finally got her the immediate and specialized
Speaker 1: care she needed.
Speaker 2: And in the end, I ended up being diagnosed after
Speaker 2: going with my mother for her mammogram and them presenting
Speaker 2: a breast with a model of a benign lump and
Speaker 2: a malignant lump, and when she described what malignant lumps
Speaker 2: typically present as mine checked all of those boxes.
Speaker 6: So that's what.
Speaker 2: Made me go see my primary care and he referred
Speaker 2: me to a surgical oncologist. And I remember being early twenties,
Speaker 2: supposedly getting ready to start my life and having to
Speaker 2: go see an oncologist was quite frightening. So I went,
Speaker 2: I was diagnosed, and I remember it like it was
Speaker 2: yesterday because it initially the surgeon was very jovial. He
Speaker 2: knew one of my mother's doctors. We were like great
Speaker 2: friends meeting. So they put me to sleep. They had
Speaker 2: to remove this lump. I found out it was a
Speaker 2: lyptnode that was filled with melanoma. But when I went
Speaker 2: in to get the results from the biopsy, he did
Speaker 2: not look at me when he saw me coming down
Speaker 2: the hall, And that was something that even to this day,
Speaker 2: I can see his face. I can see this physician
Speaker 2: sitting at his little desk, and I could still remember.
Speaker 6: His face when he walked in the room.
Speaker 2: It was very solemn and he said, Jackie, you have
Speaker 2: stage three melanoma, And that was something that was completely
Speaker 2: shocking because you don't see someone that looks like this
Speaker 2: usually with melanoma at all, and then for it to
Speaker 2: be stage three, How did this happen? And when did
Speaker 2: this happen? So it was you know, I was completely shocked.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that, you said, someone like me, someone who's young,
Speaker 1: this is not supposed to happen to me, right, that's story.
Speaker 1: So do you believe that there's misconceptions when it comes
Speaker 1: to melanoma, whether it be your age, whether it be
Speaker 1: your race or ethnicity, that we kind of take on
Speaker 1: as truths and are potentially not so true.
Speaker 2: I have been in this space for twenty years, and
Speaker 2: I know that people who are darker typically feel that
Speaker 2: melanin serves as a protectant against UV rays. I've heard
Speaker 2: this a lot, that it's like a superpower, and I say, okay, well,
Speaker 2: I definitely have a lot of melanin, and it didn't
Speaker 2: serve as a superpower for me.
Speaker 1: As a black woman. Jackie has melanated skin. Melanin is
Speaker 1: a substance that produces pigmentation in the eyes, hair, and skin.
Speaker 2: I remember too saying Oh, no, I don't sunburn, like, oh,
Speaker 2: look at me, And one of my friends said, no,
Speaker 2: you're sunburn like, look at your nose is red. It's
Speaker 2: going to start peeling.
Speaker 4: And it did.
Speaker 2: It's a dangerous misconception, right, because one of the things
Speaker 2: I've learned over the years is that when people of color,
Speaker 2: African Americans in particular, present with melanoma, it's typically later stage.
Speaker 6: Okay, so it's a poor prognosis.
Speaker 2: And when we look at charts, the incident's rate is
Speaker 2: almost flat, but the mortality rate has a spike.
Speaker 1: Because Jackie insisted on being her own advocate and stuck
Speaker 1: to her intuition, she survived and went on to thrive.
Speaker 1: We'll hear more about that later, but first, let's talk
Speaker 1: to a dermatologist who spends her days diagnosing and treating
Speaker 1: skin cancer. She'll tell us about the best ways to
Speaker 1: protect ourselves.
Speaker 3: Right after the.
Speaker 1: Break, Welcome back to Skin Queries. Let's get into the
Speaker 1: science behind our skins relationship to the sun. I'd like
Speaker 1: you to meet doctor Mary Stevenson, a surgeon here in
Speaker 1: New York City. Hi.
Speaker 3: Mary, thanks for being with us today.
Speaker 4: Hi thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So, Mary, can you tell me a little bit about
Speaker 1: your practice in New York City.
Speaker 7: So I'm a skin cancer surgeon, specifically a most surgeon,
Speaker 7: which is a specific kind of surgery her skin cancers,
Speaker 7: and a cosmetic dermatologist.
Speaker 4: But I take care of people who have.
Speaker 7: Melanomas basal cells squin THESS cells through a unique form
Speaker 7: of surgery invented by doctor Frederick mos generally removing cancers
Speaker 7: and then putting things back together after we take them.
Speaker 3: And we're just going to dive right in.
Speaker 1: So can you tell us what does sun damage look like?
Speaker 4: So? Sun damage comes in a lot of ways.
Speaker 7: We have sunburns, obviously, blisters, itchy skin, hot skin. In
Speaker 7: different shades of skin, you can have different things. You
Speaker 7: can have tanning or darkening. You can also have peeling.
Speaker 7: All of those things are signs that you're getting damage
Speaker 7: from the sun. And then as we continue to have
Speaker 7: sun damage, we get aging of the skin, so wrinkles,
Speaker 7: less thickness, which means more laxity. It also means if
Speaker 7: you have paper thin skin, you'll see bruises more. And
Speaker 7: those are the things you know more for Vanity's sake,
Speaker 7: that you can see from aging in the sun.
Speaker 1: What is your conversation when it comes to suncare. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely a range.
Speaker 7: People who've had skin cancers or very concerned they had
Speaker 7: their first skin cancer often become very compliant and want
Speaker 7: to put their sunscreen on every single day. I admit
Speaker 7: that as a skin cancer surgeon, someone who's very fair,
Speaker 7: I put my sun screen on to prevent skin cancers,
Speaker 7: but also because I want my skin to continue to
Speaker 7: look nice as I get older, and things like malasma
Speaker 7: where you can have pigment on your cheeks. If I
Speaker 7: get sun I start to get malasma, so I stay
Speaker 7: out of the sun, also admittedly for vanity's sake. And
Speaker 7: then there are people who really stay out of the
Speaker 7: sun because they don't want their skin to ate. They
Speaker 7: don't have wrinkles when they're older that come sooner, they
Speaker 7: don't have sun spots, you know, things like liver spots.
Speaker 7: We used to call them on our hands, all of
Speaker 7: those things. People have a wide range of reasons, and
Speaker 7: to me, as long as you're putting on your sunscreen,
Speaker 7: I'm good with it.
Speaker 1: And is it true that when certain people with darker
Speaker 1: skin because they have this perception that they're not getting
Speaker 1: as much sun damage. Is it that they might get
Speaker 1: diagnose later in life or potentially have worse outcomes when
Speaker 1: it comes to their diagnosis since they haven't been so precautious.
Speaker 7: So we definitely know in darker skin tone, skin of color,
Speaker 7: that diagnosis can be later and that outcomes can be
Speaker 7: worse because it's being caught at a later stage. And
Speaker 7: I think awareness is really important. Just because you have
Speaker 7: darker skin doesn't mean you can't get burned, doesn't mean
Speaker 7: you can't get damaged from the sun, and doesn't mean
Speaker 7: you can't get skin cancer.
Speaker 4: I take care of all ranges of skin.
Speaker 7: Yes, a lot of you know, Caucasian skin, very fair
Speaker 7: skinned people are repeat flyers in my office. But you
Speaker 7: can get cancer no matter what your skin tone. And
Speaker 7: I think a lot of people don't think that's true.
Speaker 7: A lot of people feel like, oh, I'm tan. Even
Speaker 7: lighter patients who go get that terrible sunburn and then
Speaker 7: their skin tants say, you know that's my protective layer.
Speaker 7: That's not your protective layer. That is your skin making
Speaker 7: melanin and trying to fight off the rays that are
Speaker 7: damaging it.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I actually didn't know that that is what it
Speaker 1: means and what your body's doing. I mean, our bodies
Speaker 1: are so amazing when it comes to trying to acclimate
Speaker 1: and protect ourselves naturally, that's incredible.
Speaker 7: That's exactly what your body's doing. It's making melanin, which
Speaker 7: absorbs UV rays and that's the sun's rays that are
Speaker 7: going out and trying to make more of it from
Speaker 7: your melanosites. So there are cells in your skin that
Speaker 7: make the melanin and then that goes into your skin
Speaker 7: and that's what's causing you to protect yourself.
Speaker 1: All the years that I've been on this or that
Speaker 1: had no idea, that's what tanning was. And so you
Speaker 1: know me, I'm trying to be a reformed tanner. Exic right,
Speaker 1: too much for someone who does like the sun? What
Speaker 1: are the habits that we can incorporate into our lives
Speaker 1: beyond just hiding at home.
Speaker 4: I think there are so many things we can do.
Speaker 7: One sunscreen, so you should put sunscreen on every day,
Speaker 7: more so in the summer, and it should just be
Speaker 7: part of your routine. The little bottles of sunscreen at
Speaker 7: the drug store that are with the moisturizer are really great.
Speaker 7: If they're SPF thirty. A lot of them are SPF fifteen.
Speaker 7: We really prefer SPF thirty or above. Okay, I usually
Speaker 7: wear higher than that, fifty or seventy, but I have
Speaker 7: sunscreen on every day on my hands, on my chest,
Speaker 7: on my neck, on my face.
Speaker 6: Ears.
Speaker 7: I find really hard even personally getting here, getting behind.
Speaker 7: And then besides just sunscreen, you have to use it correctly,
Speaker 7: so you have to reapply it usually every two hours,
Speaker 7: if you're out in the sun, if you're sweating, if
Speaker 7: you're going in the water, and you have to use enough.
Speaker 7: So we say a shot glass is what you should
Speaker 7: use to cover yourself.
Speaker 4: That's a lot of sunscreen.
Speaker 3: For your entire body, not your face.
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, I mean you can do what you want,
Speaker 7: but yes, for your entire body. But if by the
Speaker 7: end of the summer, you, for your family or yourself
Speaker 7: still have that same bottle of sunscreen, you're not using enough.
Speaker 7: You should be going through them more quickly. And then
Speaker 7: other things like sun protective clothing we now have which
Speaker 7: has a UPF which tells you the factor it's blocking sun.
Speaker 3: My kids wear rash guards during the summer.
Speaker 1: It's so easy and there's actually really cute stuff available.
Speaker 1: But even if you can get your hands on sunblack swimwear.
Speaker 1: Regular clothes work just fine.
Speaker 7: I was like the kid in the T shirt in
Speaker 7: the pool, which I hated.
Speaker 4: When I was little.
Speaker 7: We have a lot of options these days, and even
Speaker 7: companies making really nice options.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 7: I don't go to the beach at noon, you know,
Speaker 7: I'll go nine o'clock, ten o'clock for a little bit.
Speaker 7: I stay out of it usually eleven to one, Okay.
Speaker 7: My favorite time to go to the beach is around
Speaker 7: three thirty. It's quiet, it's nice and a little more shady.
Speaker 7: Use an umbrella. Don't be directly tanning yourself. Stay under
Speaker 7: the umbrella.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 7: Those are hard things to do because the sun feels good.
Speaker 7: But I find that they're really important behaviors to incorporate
Speaker 7: into your every day during the summer if you live
Speaker 7: in a warm place, because they're going to keep you protected.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to an application of sunscreen for
Speaker 1: your skincare routine, for instance, do you put a moisturizer
Speaker 1: on first and then sunscreen or where does it fit
Speaker 1: within your skincare regimen.
Speaker 4: So it depends on the season.
Speaker 7: For me, if I need less moisturizer, I'll just use
Speaker 7: my sunscreen as like the daily cream, but I usually
Speaker 7: put on a mineral, which is something like titanium or zinc,
Speaker 7: similar to what might be in like a baby's typersh cream,
Speaker 7: so very protective. We now have really nice formulations of
Speaker 7: those that aren't this pasty white, But usually my routine
Speaker 7: really is mineral sunscreen and then a tinted sunscreen over
Speaker 7: that as kind of the idea of a foundation, so
Speaker 7: I'm double covered and also feel like I'm looking the
Speaker 7: way I want to.
Speaker 1: Right, And you mentioned titanium or zinc, is one or
Speaker 1: the other better? Or do you look for certain ingredients
Speaker 1: when seeking out a sunscreen.
Speaker 7: There's physical and chemical sunscreens. I prefer physical. Most dermatologists
Speaker 7: perform physical chemical sunscreens are absorbing that energy and transmitting
Speaker 7: it so that it doesn't harm you. Physical ones are
Speaker 7: reflecting those raised back so they're not even reaching you,
Speaker 7: and these are often what we traditionally thought of as
Speaker 7: baby sunscreens.
Speaker 4: The sun also has two different kinds of rays.
Speaker 7: It's admitting UVA and UVP, so this is what we
Speaker 7: call a broad spectrum sunscreen. Chemical ones that say broad spectrum.
Speaker 7: But I find mineral to be the most reliable, and
Speaker 7: we're lucky now, we do have a lot of ones
Speaker 7: that prevent us from feeling.
Speaker 4: Like we're white and goofy. I'd like the white and
Speaker 4: goofier ones in the summer.
Speaker 3: I do too, Weirdly, I don't mind it at all.
Speaker 7: I feel like I'm more protected that way. But you
Speaker 7: should be uffing the ante if you're going to be
Speaker 7: sweating or in the water or just out in the summer.
Speaker 1: What about certain areas that get missed? I mean you
Speaker 1: mentioned your hands. My mom actually growing up was always like,
Speaker 1: don't forget your hands. Don't forget your hands. That's the
Speaker 1: first thing to show when it comes to aging. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's such an underrated one. Admittedly, I was
Speaker 1: away recently and I was really good about the sunscreen,
Speaker 1: but my lips were the one that got a little burnt.
Speaker 1: So what body parts are underrated? Lips are definitely hard.
Speaker 1: You can buy a lip, mom, many of those are fifteen.
Speaker 1: It's hard to find a thirty. I actually just use
Speaker 1: my regular sunscreen in the summer. I'll just, you know,
Speaker 1: put a little on. Your Mom is dead right that
Speaker 1: hands are a very big giveaway of age. You get
Speaker 1: sun spots, they get wrinkles.
Speaker 7: What about the scalp. Scalp is hard. That's why I
Speaker 7: had and I should have mentioned that earlier. A wide
Speaker 7: brimmed hat, a baseball cap is a cap. Yes, it
Speaker 7: protects a little bit, but it's not a hat. You
Speaker 7: also want to have a very wide rim on your hat. Basically,
Speaker 7: sun should not be reaching your face, okay, And sunglasses
Speaker 7: that are protective are great because it's hard to rub
Speaker 7: sunscreen here. It's very irritating as well. And no sprays,
Speaker 7: which I think you would agree with. Really do not
Speaker 7: like spray sunscreen. One, you can't just spray it on,
Speaker 7: you have to rub it in, so you might as
Speaker 7: well be rubbing in a cream. Yeah, Two you're using
Speaker 7: an airsol, and three you're inhaling that airsol. So I
Speaker 7: am really not a fan of them. I feel like
Speaker 7: they cause a false sense of security and one of
Speaker 7: the biggest mistakes people make is they're just spraying themselves
Speaker 7: and they're not rubbing it in.
Speaker 3: Like the perfume spray and walk in.
Speaker 4: Is not going to be that's a nice idea.
Speaker 1: Doctor Stevenson has some basic guidelines to follow when it
Speaker 1: comes to keeping an eye on your own body.
Speaker 7: I always tell patients check your skin once a month,
Speaker 7: and you're looking for moles that are regular, So we
Speaker 7: talk about avcdes asymmetry, which means it's not smooth around
Speaker 7: the borders. Be as borders so if you couldn't circle
Speaker 7: it with a pencil, c as color, so if it
Speaker 7: has different colors, if it's getting darker, d as diameter,
Speaker 7: so diameter generally greater than let's say a pencil eraser.
Speaker 7: And then evolution, and that one's really important. If you
Speaker 7: notice something changing growing, getting darker, has darker spots in it,
Speaker 7: that needs to get checked out. Everyone regardless of your background,
Speaker 7: should go to a dermatologists, make that relationship, get screened once,
Speaker 7: and then decide with your dermatologists how often you should
Speaker 7: get screened. In fairer skin, I say once a year
Speaker 7: if you've had a skin cancer that's a squamous or
Speaker 7: basal cell, so these are more common than melanoma. Twice
Speaker 7: a year, and then if you've had a melanoma, you
Speaker 7: should be going three or four times a year and
Speaker 7: getting checked and you know your skin.
Speaker 4: So that really resonated with me.
Speaker 7: In Jackie's story, I always tell my patient, like, you
Speaker 7: know your skin best, so if something feels like it's changing.
Speaker 7: Doesn't feel right. Go show your dermatologists and get it
Speaker 7: checked out.
Speaker 1: Doctor Stevenson, Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that self advocacy keeps coming up. It's something
Speaker 1: doctor Stevenson tells her patience, and it's a message Jackie
Speaker 1: is spreading as well. In the decades since her diagnosis,
Speaker 1: Jackie has been sharing her story as often as possible
Speaker 1: to raise awareness and help as many people as she can. Today,
Speaker 1: Jackie is a new mom. She and her family are thriving,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean she doesn't bear scars emotionally and physically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Some are good and some make
Speaker 2: me say, why did this happen to me? I have
Speaker 2: a nine inch scar and my groin from where they
Speaker 2: remove the lymph nodes, and then what I call my
Speaker 2: little prison tattoos, which was something I didn't realize. When
Speaker 2: you go for radiation, they tattoo you for where the
Speaker 2: beams should hit and they do it with a needle
Speaker 2: and ink. So I have those markers like a real tattoo. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have a prison tattoos. So I have
Speaker 2: those markers on me. And then from radiation. I have
Speaker 2: a scar that kind of acts as a big border
Speaker 2: around my surgical scar. I develop lymphedema in my right leg,
Speaker 2: so much like breast cancer patients have it in their arm,
Speaker 2: I have it in my right leg and I have
Speaker 2: to wear compression stocking every day. I've had three surgeries
Speaker 2: to try to help alleviate that, and that's probably one
Speaker 2: of the more difficult things because now I'm a little asymmetrical.
Speaker 2: And for years I went and talk about this, So
Speaker 2: this is big for me to even share.
Speaker 1: Do you feel you didn't talk about it because was
Speaker 1: it that you were ashamed of it or that you
Speaker 1: were just not ready.
Speaker 4: To talk about it?
Speaker 2: Very self conscious because my right leg is bigger than
Speaker 2: my left. I have this compression stocking that I have
Speaker 2: to wear every day, and people stare at it, and
Speaker 2: I'd become a little angry because you see people staring,
Speaker 2: and I learned, like wow, people are really invasive and
Speaker 2: are really comfortable asking questions of a stranger and asking
Speaker 2: personal questions. So that's one of the things. There are
Speaker 2: moments where I wonder, you will will.
Speaker 6: It come back? Will I have cancer again?
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget one of my neighbors said cancer
Speaker 2: is a shadow that always follows you, and that stayed
Speaker 2: with me because as I move forward through life, I
Speaker 2: realize how true it is. And one of the things
Speaker 2: I talk about is how they say you survived cancer,
Speaker 2: and I feel like I'm surviving because I don't know,
Speaker 2: like you survived a car accident and it's likely you'll
Speaker 2: never have that again. But it's quite possible that my
Speaker 2: cancer could come back. So I think that's the thing,
Speaker 2: that it's kind of looming in the background, and you
Speaker 2: hope that she doesn't tap you on the shoulder again.
Speaker 2: So I joked when I was going through cancer when
Speaker 2: people would be sad for me, and I said, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, I might live through cancer and get
Speaker 2: in a car accident. Like we're all going to die
Speaker 2: from something and we don't know what and when. But
Speaker 2: when you have cancer, it makes it more.
Speaker 3: Here's one final thought from Jackie.
Speaker 2: You know yourself better than anyone else. So that's one
Speaker 2: of the first things I always share with people. The
Speaker 2: second thing is to be the squeaky wheel, be annoying.
Speaker 2: If I hadn't, I wouldn't be here today.
Speaker 1: When it comes to so many things in life, We're
Speaker 1: all just doing the best we can. But Jackie felt
Speaker 1: something was wrong and she did something about it. She
Speaker 1: insisted on getting the medical help she needed, which is
Speaker 1: so inspiring when it comes to our health, particularly our
Speaker 1: own skincare. Trusting our intuition while understanding the best practices
Speaker 1: is so important for ourselves and our families well being.
Speaker 1: I am so grateful for this conversation because it shows
Speaker 1: that balance is so valuable. It's not necessarily all or nothing.
Speaker 1: It's about enjoying what we love in doses and doing
Speaker 1: it in a smart and responsible way. Today our guests
Speaker 1: were Jackie Smith and doctor Mary Stevenson. A massive thank
Speaker 1: you to both. Skin Craze his host by myself Nicole
Speaker 1: Berry and executive produced by Yvonne Shehan. Our senior producer
Speaker 1: is Tory Weldon. Our junior producers are reem Al mcgraby
Speaker 1: and Jenny Cunningham. The show was mixed and features original
Speaker 1: music by Sam Sagan. If you enjoy the show, tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can also listen and follow on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to leave a review. We would love to know
Speaker 1: what you think. Until next time,