I was with a friend when she got a call from the dermatologist. The results were not good and they wanted her to come back ASAP. She was rattled, but made an appointment immediately.
My own kids pestered me when a mole started getting creative. I had it removed and there was nothing cancerous.
People are much more savvy about the importance of getting dubious skin spots taken care of than was popular in the eighties. It is not considered cool to wait and see.
"Yeah, this thing on my face has been growing. It used to look like a microdot but now it is shaped like Texas. Every day I wake up and wonder how much it has changed. But I'm in no hurry to get it checked out. The knife freaks me out and the copay is a killer."
It is not a secret that small skin abnormalities are easily dealt with, but once cancer starts to spread it is a whole different battle. Months can give a minor problem time to become catastrophic.
But ten years later the behaviors have grown like a cancer, invading the relationship in destructive ways. Yet the culture is still one of wait and see.
"Maybe our communication will improve, you know, spontaneously, without intervention of any kind."
Actually it is not the copay that is a killer. It's our resistance to get help.
