May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month-cover up

This is a review and we received the clothing for that purpose. All thoughts are our own and true yo. That title sounds kind of preachy, the whole ‘cover up’ thing. The only reason that I can say it with a straight face is that I had Melanoma and it’s frightening. Woah, you mean I have Cancer, it’s in my skin- has the ability to travel to my organs and this is the deadliest form of Cancer around? They were some of the thoughts that I had that day when I was diagnosed.

I wrote about it in 2013 when I had the surgery and was learning all about sentinel lymph nodes, mitosis and other biological terms I had forgotten about. I’m proud to say that is probably the only Cancer post you’ll ever read that embeds a relevant Judas Priest song and a flawed lesson from The Three Amigos (with video!).

Since the surgery I’m 100% clear, go to the Oncologist twice a year and see the dermatologist four times a year. In the near future I can cut back and see the Oncologist once a year and the dermatologist twice a year. In a way it’s kind of bittersweet, because the dermatologist is next to a great doughnut place and our kids like going to see Dr. Lee with me. I’ll break it to them gently that this is a GREAT thing and we’ll get doughnuts someplace else.

‘Avoid the sun’ is the mantra that both doctors tell me when I go to their offices. I do avoid the sun as much as possible, but being a parent (and loving the outside) I need to play with the kids. Sunscreen is my friend as are hats and shady trees. For the record, in the below photo when I was hiking Camelback Mountain I was wearing a hat, but just took it off briefly.

We were approached by Coolibar, a company that has clothing, swimsuits and hats that offer UPF 50+. That blocks lots of sun and the UPF never washed out of the clothing. Even before Melanoma I used to wear a white tee shirt into the water when I wanted to play in the surf, but didn’t want to get any more sun.

Yeah, that plain white plain didn’t do anything, its UPF protection 3, maybe and that’s if I’m swimming under a tree. I was hesitant to try the Coolibar ZnO Long Sleeve T-Shirt because, it’s long sleeve. My mind says, I don’t want the sun on my skin, but another part of me says that it’s long sleeve, it’s going to be hot and counteract any fun that I would be having in the sun.

I wore the shirt outside on a recent trip to Scottsdale, Arizona and was shocked at how it wasn’t hot. The shirt breathes, is light when it’s dry and comfortable to swim in. It was just over 100 when I wore it by the pool that afternoon.  Based on that experiment it will do the trick at the beach with ease.

The hat is cool. It’s large, covers my shaved head, face, neck and has a UPF of 50+. I still use sunscreen on my head mind you, but I wear the hat enough to where it’s motivated our children to want to wear hats. Coolibar also has a nice variety of children’s hats, tees, shirts and bathing suits too.

Because May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month Coolibar is donating $1 from every sale to the American Cancer Society. Bonus: use the code “ACS15” when you check out and you’ll save 15% plus get free shipping.

At the bare minimum, regardless of how much time you spend in the sun you owe it to yourself to visit the dermatologist. It could be a mole, questionable spot or most likely nothing at all, but you need to know and this is certainly not an area that you can DIY.