My Interview with UV Skinz

As I’ve shared from my Facebook page, UV Skinz contacted me a few weeks ago to interview me for their “My Story” segment.  I was pleased with their entry and it was a pleasure corresponding with their blogging guru, Kalisha Frazier.  As promised in a previous blog, I’d like to share the environment from which I gave the interview.

Kalisha and I played email tag for over a week before we finally narrowed down a day for me to call.  I still had problems finding a time to spend on such a call, but the opportunity arose in, of all places, the waiting room in a dermatologist’s office.  My wife was visiting for an appointment (more on that in a bit) and I figured I had a good 20 minutes or so of free time to call.  I sat in the back corner of a relatively large waiting room while my kids buried their noses into their iPods.

I think I might have called Kalisha during her lunch as she seemed a little surprised to hear from me.  Again, we decided on the day, but never narrowed down the time.  She was kind enough to take the call despite it being near her lunch time and she was a real pleasure to talk with.  She asked questions about my family and upbringing as well as more detailed questions regarding my involvement with this blog and melanoma awareness in general.  This is where things started to get interesting.  You see, I had forgotten where I was sitting as we talked…and as the conversation leaned heavily on skin cancer and melanoma, I noticed others in the room intently listening I to my conversation.  In fact, one of the office workers was dusting the furniture nearby…barely paying attention to the actual dusting.

My focus was still on the conversation, but I couldn’t help but realize that my conversation was being shared with others.  I made sure my answers to Kalisha’s questions weren’t all gloom and doom…after all some people were probably waiting for an appointment for a skin exam.  But at the same time, we talked about questions people should ask their dermatologist.  I’m pretty sure that one woman was actually taking notes!

My wife eventually came out of her appointment after 30 minutes or so, and I thanked Kalisha for her time and for opportunity to share my story.  As we walked out, I leaned to the one office worker and apologized to her for having been too chatty on my cell phone in the waiting room.  She responded, “No worries…I found it quite educational!”

And I guess that’s what it’s about; educating, informing, or just making others aware.  I thank UV Skinz again for the opportunity to share, and I thank Cary Dermatology for allowing me a little soapbox in the corner of their waiting room.

As for my wife’s appointment, I had mentioned before that her doctor advised her to see a plastic surgeon to have a reemerging dysplastic nevi removed.  He suggested the surgeon due to the depth of the spot, which previously was found benign.  She has a consultation with the plastic surgeon in 12 days…I’ll keep you posted how that goes.  Thank you for your feedback which eventually led her to make the decision to have the spot removed.