Happy freaking Friday! I’m so excited I can barely stand it, this week has been a total blur. I don’t feel like I ever came up for air, but now it’s the weekend and I can’t wait to go out an party (or more likely sleep—-> so cool.) I’m looking forward to the grilled cheese truck that canceled last week (back up plan this week = Mexican food and margaritas) and a girls night tonight since the hubby is out of town. He is pretty sad he is missing the grilled cheese truck though (if they show up.)
The app I want to share with everyone this week is not food related, but it is a health related app that is really cool.
So what does this app do? It provides a service to you that would cost over a grand or more in a clinic, (granted the quality would be better but this is a good free second option). It helps you keep a full body record of any and all moles that you have (or if your like me and have to many to track, just the ones that you are concerned about). The photos can then serve as a baseline to help you better determine whether you have any moles that are changing or new ones.
The app will first ask that you set up a frequency of self exams, then it will begin walking you through a full body survey. The downside is that this is IMPOSSIBLE to do by yourself, I tried it and it didn’t work. You absolutely need help to be able to take all the photos they want you to take so keep that in mind.
Once the full body survey is done you will also have the option to track a specific lesion or take a close up. This part is probably the greatest downfall I found with the app because my iPhone does not want to focus in on the mole. It does better once I move the lens away from it a bit, but then the picture isn’t exactly a close up. I took a picture of the mole/freckle on my forearm for an example.
If I had a full body survey done it would let me compare the close up to the full body survey. Then every time I do a full body photo I can also update the close up of each “lesion” I’m tracking to see if it has changed.
The app also has other neat features like a risk calculator:
And other tips:
As far as risk of skin cancer goes, I’ve got a lot working against me. Not only did I grow up in Arizona (strike 1), I was obsessed with the pool as a kid and was involved in a lot of summer sports like swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming (strike 2). When i got older I spent my summers lifeguarding (strike 3). Along with laying out (strike 3) in high school and college I also visited the tanning beds (strike 4-10) every year before spring break. All this came to a screeching halt when I discovered a black mole about the size of a pencil eraser on my right breast. It was moderately atypical (i.e. pre-cancerous) so they removed it. Since then I’ve had one mild- moderate atypical mole removed and a handful of mildly atypical moles. It used to really stress me out and freak me out, but now I just do my best to track them using this app and get checked two to three times a year. (Most people only need to go yearly but because of my history I go more often.) On top of that I think sharing this app has been on my mind recently because a friend of ours was recently diagnosed with basil cell carcinoma, which is luckily not usually very aggressive. She will be fine, but I think it highlighted in mind the importance of taking advantage of preventative medicine.
Right now is a great time to get a baseline self body scan done! This is preventative medicine at it’s finest, an opportunity to really be proactive with your own health! What are the benefits to using this app? It can help you notice new moles and watch for changes in any current skin lesions, if you notice a change you can schedule an appointment with your derm. You can show the derm the changes with the app and on your skin which will help them decide if the lesion is dangerous or not. If you continually track whats happening on your body you are more likely to identify something suspicious early on when it is easily treatable just by removing it (as opposed to going through chemo or radiation.)
Past Healthy iPhone App Review Friday Posts:
- “Fast Food,” “Fast Food Nutrition, Calories, Carbs” & “Under 600” —-> restaurant nutrition facts
- Harvest & Seasons—-> Shopping guides for produce
- Foam Roller—-> foam rolling techniques
- Dirty Dozen—-> shopping guide for produce
- Whole Pantry—-> vegan/vegetarian recipes
- Motion X 24/7—-> pedometer, sleep, heart rate, and weight tracker
That’s it for me, have a great weekend everyone!
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