Big Mouth

Hi,
I'm a big mouth. My mother has called me that ever since I can remember. I love to talk. A lot. Often. Some times loudly. I say what's on my mind. Not always a good thing and I've tried to learn to filter before I open up my pisk (Yiddish for 'mouth'). Occasionally being a big mouth has it's pluses. Today that proved true.

I work at the Newtown Athletic Center. I'm there 5 or 6 days a week and I've got to know quite a few of the women who are regulars. When you share space in a locker room, you get rather familiar with one another. I get asked regularly about my bald head. It certainly is a conversation piece. There are no other bald women hanging around the shower stalls at the NAC. Being the big mouth, I am happy to explain my hairless state. Given that open door I emphasize how important it is for people to go to a dermatologist and have their skin checked properly for potential melanoma, squamous cells or other irregularities that may promote skin cancer. The population around here are still very big on tanning and sun worshiping, not to mention the tanning salon obsession with younger women. That's another issue for a different rant some day.

Today when I was getting changed after a yoga class, a woman turned to me in the locker room and thanked me. I didn't recognize her but she said she over heard me talk about my cancer and surgery episode a few months ago. I guess I'm louder than I realize sometimes. She said it prompted her to go and see a dermatologist, and low & behold, he had to remove several melanoma spots from her back. She was shocked to hear that her 'freckles' were not just skin colour irregularities but cancerous cells. Her name is Maryanna and she couldn't thank me enough for getting her to go see a doctor she wouldn't normally have considered bothering with.  She said she had been looking for me for the last month or so to tell me how grateful she was that I told my tale and scared her to death. Maryanna is now a believer in 'skin health' and is spreading her story to all her friends.

Being a big mouth can be a good thing on occasion.

xox
m