SPF 1,000

Ok, so they really don't make a sunscreen with an SPF of 1,000. But did you know that you can find them in 50, 70 & even 85? I now wear a daily lotion with an SPF of 70. I find it online, but you can occasionally find ones with 50 in stores. Back in my naive days, I would sunbathe as if I was roasting a turkey. Here are my old tools of the trade when it came to baking the Casper white body of mine:

Step 1: Start by laying down a shiny foil-colored reflective blanket, because, well the sun isn't hot enough to do much on it's own.
Step 2: Just in case the blanket doesn't help enough, completely slather your skin in baby oil. That will be sure to reflect the sun a bazillion times more than just the blanket alone will.
Step 3: Turn up your boombox loud...as loud as your ear drums can take it. It'll help drown out the sound of your skin sizzling.
Step 4: If you start to feel pain or a stinging sensation, that means it's time to flip over. If that doesn't help, just cool yourself down with your handy dandy spray bottle. That'll give you a good 20-30 more minutes of baking time.
Step 5: Keep your beverage on ice and nearby. Dehydrating will cause you to lose valuable tanning time.
Repeat these steps daily and ignore any blistering you might see. Remember,"No Pain, No Gain".

Sadly, those were the steps I did do every ~ single ~ day I was able to, when I was in my early 20's. To change things up, I would sometimes lay the blanket on an air mattress while laying on it in the water at the lake. Slather up with baby oil and take a nap for an hour or two. Aaahhh, good times.

To say ignorance is bliss is an understatement. To show you how absolutely ignorant I was, I would get all giddy if I got really sunburnt, because after the pain and peeling went away, that would make an awesome tan. If I got super sunburnt, my eyes would swell up, sometimes even swelling shut. SCORE! I'd have to get a great tan from that!

It's only by the Grace of God that I haven't developed skin cancer yet. Seriously. Although, I will soon be going in for a full body check to make sure I don't have any.

However, I am still paying a price for the damage I did to my poor delicate, fair skin. Check it out.

See the darkness forming over my face and moving down my neck? Isn't that pretty? *sigh* I have the same thing on my upper chest and the tops of my arms. It's actually quite a bit darker than it looks on camera. Somehow my legs have avoided it, so far. On my face it used to be light enough that I could cover it with make-up. Sadly, that's not the case anymore.

I went to a Dermatologist who prescribed me this bleaching cream, but as you can see in these pictures, that did nothing. So, she said I've done the damage deep enough that on my fair skin, this will be really hard to remove. I could have cried right there knowing what I did to myself all those years ago. So yesterday I had my first "Chemical Peel". The good news with it, is that the Doctor said the peel will also remove fine lines and wrinkles. She said as stubborn as this will be, I will probably need a minimum of 4-5 peels before we know for sure whether it will help or not. I am praying it works.

Currently my face looks like I am sunburnt and my eyes are puffy, which is ironic since that's the reason I had to go to the doctor in the first place. Yesterday it was stinging, so I kept a small hand held fan pointed at my face. By tomorrow or the next day, she said I will start to peel quite a bit. Yeah, wooohoo! Oh yea I'm looking forward to that. But, I guess it's a deserved punishment for my wrong doing of days gone by.

I'll keep updating how the series is going. Oh and in case your wondering, yes my children have been badgered and hounded regarding wearing a high SPF. They know I'll come unglued if I even hear of them going out in the sun with no protection at all. I'm hoping they will learn from my mistakes and what I have to go through.