welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

learned my lesson

LEARNED MY LESSON
one day as i was looking in the mirror i noticed a small pinprick drop of blood on my nose
i wiped it off and went on about my business
then
a few days later there it was again
like someone had painlessly pricked my nose with a fine needle

i knew since i had removed skin cancers like basal cell and squamous cell off peoples faces and their bodies over my career
i knew what that was

i thought
you have a basal cell on your nose

so
i googled mohs surgery for basal cell of the nose
hit enter
clicked on images
oh my i thought
that looks awful

off to the derm for a biopsy
then to a mohs surgeon to have it removed
the basal cell not my nose
it just felt like she had removed my nose

now
2 years later you really cant tell she cut a big ole hole in my nose and moved flaps of skin around so there would be hardly any scar

i thought to my self during recovery
i never ever want to do that again

so
i became religious about using sunscreen and wearing a hat and sometimes wearing long sleeves even in the hot summer

now here in santa barbara its dangerous since the weather is usually nice
like today
it will start out with some morning fog then as the day goes on there will be bright sun with no clouds
it seems like nothing slows down those sun rays

theres been many a day ive gone to the garden hatless and sunscreenless since it was so overcast
then
the next thing i know by lunchtime my face is red like i had a hot flash

ive learned to be more aggressive with the sunscreen and hats no matter the weather

 ive settled on the sunscreen in the above two pictures and have noticed that it works well and doesnt seem to sweat off much as the day goes on

after reading the below article i think i will need to change mine

recently i saw this article on sunscreen damaging things
the coral reefs
our hormones
us

in hawaii the reefs are dying they think from the sunscreens with
oxybenzone
octinoxate
in them

i do worry what affect these have on babies and young kids since they are rapidly growing
and they get a lot of sunscreen rubbed on them everyday

this article recommends avobenzone which is better
even better is
zinc oxide and titanium dioxide

these last two make the uv light bounce off thus blocking the uv effects
zinc oxide is in desitin amd other diaper rash ointments and is used as a thick paste on folks noses who surf and life guard

the other stuff above absorbs the sun rays

so blocking is better than absorbing

sprays dont work as well as the kind you rub on

use spf 40-50

this article has references to sites like consumer reports or an app that give recommended products to use
it also lists the recommended ones for kids

use one that doesnt kill the coral reefs and doesnt change your kids hormones

ive learned my lesson to use sunscreens regularly and floppy hats
now
i just need to use the one that doesnt harm me or the environment

the organicgreen doctor

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