Read My Lips!

The purpose of this blog post is to make you aware of something you may have never heard of. I can tell you that I had not. Until 2021.

A routine visit to my dermatologist prompted me to ask her if there was anything they could do about my chapped lips. They were dry, but way beyond just dry. They had spots that continually became thicker and I’d get that off one way or another. But it would always come back. My getting the dried spots off always came with bleeding lips.

Upon closer inspection with her magnifier, my derm informed me that the condition was common for people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Well, I’m from the generation where we played outside all summer. Then, as a young married woman, we moved to Florida where I spent nearly forty years.

Years of spending time outdoors as a child, then working in my yard and on the grounds of our local church, plus long walks on the beach where we lived for three years, had taken their toll.

DIAGNOSIS

She informed me the condition I had was actinic cheilitis, a precancerous condition due to sun exposure.  (See here for more info: https://bit.ly/3IjntaS).

You can imagine my shock. I’d never heard of this, plus I thought I had overly dry lips.

She suggested chemo-in-a-tube as she called it. My doctor informed me that it wouldn’t be easy, was painful, but it would heal nicely. She also said if it didn’t work the first time, I would have to repeat it the next year.

Read My Lips! @DDuPreeWilliams #DryLips #Dermatologist #writing Share on X

HOPEFULLY – 3rd TIME DOES IT

Fast forward to two weeks ago. This is the third time I’ve had to go through this. No, it isn’t easy. Yes, it is painful and it’s gross. In effect, the cream melts away the affected skin, layer by layer. You go back for them to check to see if it’s done its job, and you either continue up to a total of two weeks, or you’ve done a good enough job to stop with the cream and allow your lips to heal.

I used the cream for ten days the first time in 2021, for 9 days in 2022, then skipped 2023, and now in 2024, I used it for 8 days. I’m now in the healing stage which should last about two weeks, and I can say, it isn’t pretty. I’ll spare you the photos. But my lips are cracked and bleeding and the skin sloughing off is majorly gross. The outside and the tender inside parts of my lips are raw and painful.

But what is the alternative? If you ignore this, it could become cancerous. If you don’t catch it soon enough, you could lose part or all of your lips.

MAKE THAT APPOINTMENT

The bottom line here is this—if you even remotely suspect your dry lips aren’t just from the heat in your home or a cold or whatever, get to your dermatologist and let them take a closer look. Most likely, it is only dry, cracked lips, but you need to know. Even though the month spent going through this and getting to healed lips isn’t pleasant, it far outweighs losing my lips.

Blessings, y’all.

This is the style of music we sang in our choir years ago in our church in Birmingham. There are times when I truly miss this. I knew this verse, but I’d only heard it sung as a chant during evensong or another service. Blessings to you.