Anyone who spends a great deal of time outdoors needs to use sunscreens, wide-brimmed hats, and collared shirts with long sleeves. It's great if you can work early in the morning and late in the day instead of during the beating hot rays of mid-day. Those are all the "perfect world" settings, but at a minimum use sunscreen and wear a hat.

I say that from the position of a guy who's had 18 basal cell carcinomas, 3 squamous cells and now 1 melanoma. Those are listed in order of increasing concern. You really don't want any of them, most especially melanoma.

I have most recently been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, that is, stage 4 melanoma skin cancer.

Because sunscreens had not been developed when I was a young gardener, I have been seeing a dermatologist every six months for 35 years and every three months for the past 8 or 10 years.

My prior doctor was retiring to Florida in 2020, and she had identified both basal cell on my forehead and squamous cell on the top of my scalp in my last visit to her in December 2019.

I had Mohs surgery to remove the squamous cell in December 2019.

I went with my wife to meet her dermatologist a couple of weeks later since she was to become my new dermatologist.

She was the one who spotted the melanoma. All of which is to say, it was caught early. Two other doctors who had been looking at my head within 2 inches of it hadn't noticed it. It was removed surgically the next week. It was listed as stage 1-A.

Jumping ahead, in an annual CT scan for something else this past spring, my cardiologist said he had noted a small spot on my left lung.

And that is where the odyssey of the past several months began. It's been a series of CT scans, MRIs, PET scans, biopsies, doctors' visits, and other things I am already forgetting, but it brings me to why I am letting you know this.

Even before I mentioned any of this to anyone outside my family and my extremely immediate co-workers, my family and my office were receiving calls with speculations that I must be very ill.

I have no idea where those conversations (let me just call them rumors) began because I've kept working at my regular pace and I feel the same today as I did before any of this was identified. I feel terrific.

Our family is in the community eye. We have been quite open through our family's journeys of the past 30 years. We prefer that route to gossip and whispers, so I am telling you about this right up front, and I will tell my radio audience this weekend.

I welcome your prayers. And I deeply appreciate your concerns. You are my family.

At the same time, I'll say it again: I feel great, and I intend to keep working as usual.

Great strides have been made in dealing with melanoma through immunotherapy. My local doctors have been terrific, and last week Lynn and I spent three days at M.D. Anderson's Melanoma Clinic in Houston where some of the world's most respected experts conduct their research and treatment of this disease. There were 60 people in that waiting room - I was with my people there to see the 8 melanoma doctors. One of them is my doctor, a leader in this field.

I do intend to reduce my airtime by one hour on both WBAP and KLIF beginning in November. I buy my airtime, and that's a business decision, not one determined by medical need.

Finally, I told you some months ago that I had two reasons that I had put my book on sale. One was to raise funds to help my wife complete payments on her reelection campaign for McKinney ISD school board this past May. That was successful, and we both thank you.

This is the other. Much of my care is covered by insurance, but frequent trips to Houston and many other medical needs will not be covered. My book is my best way of providing for those needs.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your concerns. I have a family and friends who love me. Who could wish for anything more? I really am doing quite well.

Life is wonderful, and it's a great time to be a part of it.

My work here is not yet completed.

God is great!

Happy gardening!