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[00:00:00] Ericka Clinton: Good day, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Collaborative Connections, a space for sharing and learning sponsored by the Society for Oncology Massage and the Society for Oncology Aesthetics. episode is the first in our skin cancer awareness series. My name is Erica Clinton, and I will be your host for this episode. today’s podcast, we have Scott White, pilot and skin cancer survivor. Let me tell you a little bit about Scott. He is a third-generation pilot in his family. His grandfather’s pilot license was signed by his personal friend, Orville Wright, of the Wright brothers, ladies and gentlemen. His father was a Navy pilot in the Pacific during World War II. Scott grew up around aviation and airplanes, which led to his love [00:01:00] of flying. path to the airlines came as a civilian pilot, and he has been an airline pilot now for 38 years, flying both domestic and international routes. 61 years old, he has four years left in his career before the mandatory age 65 retirement happens here in the United States. So we really wanna say thank you, Scott, for taking your time to join us today. It’s a pleasure to meet you

[00:01:28] Scott White: Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it

[00:01:31] Ericka Clinton: We this is a really special episode. Cancer affects so many people. And I think there’s still this lack of awareness about who’s at risk and why there’s at ri- why they’re, they are at risk. So we really appreciate you telling us a bit about your story.

[00:01:48] Piloting and Skin Cancer Risk

[00:01:48] Ericka Clinton: I do think, most people think about, like, too much time at the beach, really long tanning bed sessions as putting people at risk for skin cancer as well as [00:02:00] certain skin types. But you were a pilot. When did you first start connecting the dots between being a pilot, flying, and your skin?

[00:02:10] Scott White: Well, I probably have to back up just a little bit because I grew up on the beach in Southern California, so I was exposed to a lot of sunburns as a child. I mean, I grew up in the ’80s. In my era of time, we didn’t have all of these advanced sunscreens. As kids, it was almost like we had contests as to who could be the most sunburned by the end of the day, we would lay on foil blankets and mix iodine with baby oil and, probably the best sunscreen we had in my day was zinc oxide, and even then you’d only put it on your nose or maybe under your eyes, so, so some of my damage probably came from my exposure as a child.

[00:02:52] Right Seat UV Exposure Clues

[00:02:56] Scott White: But it wasn’t until much, much later that I started connecting the dots when several of my [00:03:00] pre-cancerous areas appeared on the right side of my body, and mostly the right side of my face.

[00:03:07] Scott White: And the reason that I relate that to you is that in my thirty-eight years of being an airline pilot, twenty-eight years was spent in the right seat of the airplane. So when you think about that, you hear stories about truck drivers who seem to have a lot of cancer, skin cancer on the left side of their body.

[00:03:24] Scott White: For pilots, we’re finding out that it’s largely dependent on which side of the airplane you’re sitting on, and that has to do a lot with, with rank within the airline business. When you’re a co-pilot or a first officer who’s the pilot who’s second in command of the airplane, that is a position where you always sit in the right seat of the airplane.

[00:03:43] Scott White: So that’s how most airline pilots start, is in the right seat. As you progress throughout your career, you eventually become eligible to become a captain. Once you become a captain, you’re the one in command of the airplane, but you always sit in the left seat as the, as the captain. So when I started thinking about spending [00:04:00] twenty-eight years in the right seat of the airplane and some of my cancers appearing only on the right side of my body, that’s where I think we started connecting the dots.

[00:04:07] Ericka Clinton: That’s such great information, but also so interesting of like place where you probably spend the most years,

[00:04:15] Scott White: Yeah

[00:04:16] Ericka Clinton: yeah, can signify what part of your body is at risk.

[00:04:21] Cockpit Protection Myths

[00:04:21] Scott White: Yeah, and I don’t think we related that too much. In my time, we were told that the skin of the airplane protects you. Airliners any pressurized aircraft ha- the windows in the airplane are made of multiple layers to give the window strength because the airliners are… And, and even corporate airplanes, anything that operates at high altitude the window thickness plays a very, very big part in the structural integrity of the airplane, especially for pressurized aircraft.

[00:04:48] Scott White: We were always told that these multiple layers of glass had this coating on them that protected us from all the bad UV radiation. We’re finding out 40 years [00:05:00] later that that wasn’t the case. And, and the evidence is being proven now in my generation of, of pilots, where we’re coming up with lots of pre-cancerous areas on our skin, and if they’re not addressed, they will turn into cancer.

[00:05:13] Scott White: And, and I’ve had several, and we can talk about that here in a little bit

[00:05:18] Ericka Clinton: Okay. So I’m assuming with that understanding of this sense of protection by the, the airplane itself that you don’t wear sunscreen in the

[00:05:29] Scott White: No, we never did because– No, we never did. We, we wear short sleeve shirts, and we never protected our faces. Now, if the sun is bright or shining in your face, we have sun visors in the older aircraft. In the newer aircraft, there’s big stowable sunshades that will actually shade the entire window.

[00:05:47] Scott White: But that provides more of a, just a protection from the bright sunlight. It doesn’t provide any UV protection. And it’ll be interesting to see what this next generation of airliners, how [00:06:00] they, how the engineers tend to address this. But in my generation of, of pilots, the ones that are close to retiring we’re all coming up with these strange skin cancers and and we can probably relate it to where did you spend most of your time?

[00:06:14] Scott White: Were you in the left seat or the right seat? My, my case was right seat. All my cancer’s been on the right side of my body, every bit of it

[00:06:21] Ericka Clinton: Wow.

[00:06:22] New Pilot Sun Safety Habits

[00:06:23] Ericka Clinton: So, is, is anybody taking that on in terms of saying, “Let’s put on sunscreen before we get in the cockpit”?

[00:06:30] Scott White: So our newer generation of pilots so I’m a fairly senior captain at the airline I work for. I fly with a lot of junior new first officers who are very early in their career, in their 20s and 30s, and they are so educated. It’s really nice to see. They all wear sunscreen. They wear sunglasses. If they’re not wearing long-sleeve shirts, they put on like these portable sleeves that go on their, on their arms.

[00:06:53] Scott White: So, you can walk around the terminal with a short-sleeve shirt on, but when you’re in the airplane, you’ll see them sleeve up. And and I tell them all the [00:07:00] time “You’re a lot smarter than we were.” But of course, I think for us, we just didn’t have the information. We just didn’t know

[00:07:05] Ericka Clinton: Right? There wasn’t the education there.

[00:07:08] Scott White: There was not

[00:07:10] Ericka Clinton: they, they have learned or some, the information is out there.

[00:07:13] Scott White: Yeah, true.

[00:07:15] Ericka Clinton: hmm

[00:07:15] Cosmic Radiation and Other Risks

[00:07:15] Scott White: One of the other interesting things we’re finding out now is that airliners are subject to cosmic radiation. Cosmic radiation, obviously cosmic, comes from outer space. This type of radiation penetrates the skin of the airplane and the windows both day and night. It’s invisible. We can’t see it.

[00:07:35] Scott White: It’s more prevalent over the North and South Poles. So think about this for the international flight crews. A lot of our international flights operate over the North and South Poles. At the equator, cosmic radiation is a lot less prevalent. But if you operate in the international environment, like lots of our crews have for their entire careers, we have flight attendants that have an 80% higher chance of contracting breast cancer, [00:08:00] and that’s something that’s only unique to the flight attendant community.

[00:08:04] Scott White: Think about a lot of these flight attendants that have been flying international routes for 30 or 40 years. Can we draw a line with that? Possibly, and I think there, there’s a lot of research going into that now. But cosmic radiation was something that was never talked about until, until recently

[00:08:19] Ericka Clinton: Of course. We can’t see it, so

[00:08:21] Scott White: No. And it’s not necessarily skin cancer, but it’s strange other cancers that people are coming up with. And can we relate that to cosmic radiation? Possibly. I don’t really know enough about it. It’s just been more of a murmuring in the business really

[00:08:35] Ericka Clinton: Well, it’s interesting because when you have rate of cancer that, that’s, that, that’s so high, when you say

[00:08:40] Ericka Clinton: 80%, right? There’s, there’s something there

[00:08:45] Scott White: absolutely. And, and now can we draw it to UV radiation from the sun? Can we draw it to cosmic radiation? You have to realize there’s a lot of electronics on board the aircraft as well. We have radios and transmitters. We have weather radar that’s [00:09:00] going almost all the time. Could that be a contributing factor?

[00:09:02] Scott White: Possibly. And I think our, our scientists and researchers are looking into that now. But the evidence is coming out in my generation after long-term exposure, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens 30 or 40 years from now with the kids that are starting in the business now,

[00:09:15] Ericka Clinton: it will be very, very interesting to see what things they come up with to make

[00:09:20] Ericka Clinton: that environment safer

[00:09:22] Scott White: Right

[00:09:22] Diagnosis and Mohs Procedures

[00:09:22] Ericka Clinton: Um, let’s, let’s talk about your diagnosis and some

[00:09:26] Scott White: Okay.

[00:09:27] Ericka Clinton: that

[00:09:27] Scott White: Sure.

[00:09:28] Ericka Clinton: So you had a very common procedure done with skin cancer, a Mohs procedure

[00:09:33] Scott White: I have.

[00:09:34] Ericka Clinton: and arm,

[00:09:35] Scott White: That’s true

[00:09:36] Ericka Clinton: had a carcinoma in your eye

[00:09:39] Scott White: I did.

[00:09:40] Eye Carcinoma Discovery Story

[00:09:41] Scott White: And this is really an interesting story because it, it started in my right eye, in the white of my eye, and I was feeling every day like I had a foreign object sensation in my eye. Like you have a piece of dust in your eye or an eyelash. Every day I would look in my eye and I’d rub my eye all the time, and it would never go away.

[00:09:59] Scott White: So [00:10:00] one day in the mirror, I look, and I have this, it almost looked like a light brown spot in the lower right corner of the white of my eye. I thought, “Well, that’s a little strange.” I didn’t have an eye doctor. I didn’t really know who to go to. My dad, who was a pilot as well who was in his 80s, had just had cataract surgery.

[00:10:19] Scott White: His cataract surgeon was a pilot as well, owned his own aircraft. So I thought, “Well, if anything, he’ll know what the FAA certification requirements are if this turns out to be something. I’m gonna go see him first.” But he was a cataract specialist. He wasn’t a cancer specialist. And he he looked at my eye real closely.

[00:10:36] Scott White: He said, to me, Scott, that looks like something called a pterygium.” And I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a pterygium,

[00:10:41] Ericka Clinton: No

[00:10:42] Scott White: it is a, it’s a growth on the surface of your eye that is typically from UV exposure. It’s your eye’s reaction to, to many, many years of UV. I’ve never been very good at wearing sunglasses.

[00:10:57] Scott White: Part of the reason is I have very dark brown eyes. My eyes [00:11:00] seem to filter light very, very well that where it doesn’t bother me. I, I have a lot of friends, including my wife, that has very light blue eyes. Sunlight drives her crazy. She has to put sunglasses on the minute she walks out the door. But for me the sunlight doesn’t bother me, so I typically don’t wear sunglasses, never have.

[00:11:15] Scott White: So this doctor says, pterygiums are typically benign, so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna sedate you, and we’re just gonna shave that little part off the surface of your eye, and we’ll send it off to, to biopsy.” He told me, he said, “I wholly anticipate this to be benign. Yeah, everyone I’ve seen has been benign.”

[00:11:34] Scott White: But three days later, I got a call back from the surgeon himself, and usually when you get a call from the surgeon himself, it’s usually not good news. He said what it turned out to be was squamous cell carcinoma, and that because my margins were not clear, he would have to send me to an ocular oncologist.

[00:11:51] Scott White: And so that was my next step.

[00:11:54] Ericka Clinton: Okay.

[00:11:55] Earlier Arm and Cheek Lesions

[00:11:55] Ericka Clinton: So did the, it, did it start with the eye and then you realized that there [00:12:00] were things going on on your face and your arm?

[00:12:03] Scott White: No, my, my arm was the first thing that had happened.

[00:12:07] Ericka Clinton: Okay

[00:12:08] Scott White: it was, it was my arm first. And I had an area removed in, on, in my right arm that turned out to be a, I had a biopsy first. Turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma. This particular dermatologist said, “We’re just gonna- We think we got it all.

[00:12:27] Scott White: We’re gonna keep an eye on it, but if something weird happens or it gets itchy or starts bleeding,” which was what was happening over about the next year or so, “then I need you to come back, and we’re gonna take a little bit deeper dive into it.” During that time, I had had a suspicious area in my right cheek area that was actually initially just frozen off with liquid nitrogen, but it kept coming back, and it kept coming back about every three months.

[00:12:56] Mohs Surgery Ordeal

[00:12:56] Scott White: Um, as I was laying there getting the biopsy on [00:13:00] my right cheek after about the third time it came back, the dermatologist looked at that spot on my right arm and said, “I really don’t like the way that looks. I wanna re-biopsy that.” That led to me having a Mohs procedure in my right cheek, and also after that led to me having a Mohs procedure in my right arm.

[00:13:19] Scott White: Now, my right cheek, I don’t know if you can really tell, it’s slightly a little bit swollen still to this day, but I had 44 stitches from that Mohs procedure that went all the way under my eye and all the way down my nasolabial fold. That was no fun, and I was very, very fortunate it didn’t leave me scarred.

[00:13:34] Scott White: I had a very good Mohs surgeon here in Memphis, Tennessee. And aside from it being just a little red and swollen, I’ve been cancer-free ever since, and that was about, oh, seven years ago, seven or eight years ago

[00:13:47] Ericka Clinton: That’s amazing. 44 stitches in your face

[00:13:50] Scott White: Yeah. And, and it had, it had come back after that. They’re not sure why. I ended up having to have another Mohs procedure in the [00:14:00] same area that wasn’t quite as invasive. The second procedure I had about 20 stitches which was really no fun having to have that procedure repeated. But now I’ve been cancer-free for about eight years, so I think at this point we can probably assume that, that we got it all.

[00:14:15] Scott White: But these, some of these Mohs procedures can be very invasive and and but, I feel good now and haven’t had any problems since aside from a little bit of redness and swelling, but outside of that I can live with that.

[00:14:26] Ericka Clinton: Okay.

[00:14:26] Scott White: better than the option of having cancer, right?

[00:14:29] Ericka Clinton: Absolutely better than the option.

[00:14:31] Ericka Clinton: And

[00:14:31] Scott White: So the– Oh, no, sorry.

[00:14:31] Cancer Timeline Shift

[00:14:31] Scott White: So the, the skin cancer happened first. The, the eye cancer was the very last thing to happen.

[00:14:38] Ericka Clinton: Okay.

[00:14:39] Scott White: Yeah

[00:14:39] Ericka Clinton: happened last.

[00:14:42] Scott White: It did

[00:14:44] Ericka Clinton: and after everything you went through on your face and your arm, to also then have this in your eye, like can you talk to us a little bit about just I guess how that felt in terms of realizing that [00:15:00] there was so much cancer going on for you, particularly on this side of your body?

[00:15:04] Mental Toll of Treatment

[00:15:04] Scott White: I think, there’s this big aspect of cancer that and, and, and skin cancer because it- it’s, that a lot of people don’t talk about, and that’s the psychological part of it, right? I mean, I did not realize when I had my first skin cancer how invasive a Mohs procedure could be. And of course, they, during a Mohs procedure, they leave you, they leave the wound open to go take the skin sample under a microscope and take a look at it and make sure that your margins are clear.

[00:15:34] Scott White: And, while the doctor’s in the other part of the office looking at that, you take a good look at your face or your arm or wherever it happens to be. It, it, it’s a big swath that they take from you. And I, and I, I don’t think a lot of people talk about the psychological aspect of that, it’s very disturbing. There is a, a, it’s a, you’re shocked as to how much they actually take.

[00:15:56] Scott White: But the good news is they take just enough that they need to [00:16:00] take without trying to take more so that you do become cancer-free. With my eye, I think for me there was a couple of different aspects for that. One is, am I gonna lose my eye?

[00:16:11] Scott White: And, and because that initial cataract surgeon only took material from the surface of my eye, he said that I would have to go for a much larger surgery because at that time they didn’t know how much it had invaded the structure of my eye. So y- your mind typically goes in a bad place of, well, am I gonna lose my eye?

[00:16:32] Scott White: Has it spread outside my eye? Could it have affected my brain or other parts of my body? So yeah, I mean, it’s, it, that on its own was disturbing enough.

[00:16:43] Pilot Career Fears

[00:16:55] Scott White: But as an airline pilot, the FAA keeps a very close watch over us medically, and we have to submit to an FAA physical exam once every six months. Anything that you have done in between exams has to be declared to the FAA.

[00:16:58] Scott White: And now I’m thinking, am I gonna lose [00:17:00] my career over this? Bad enough to have the cancer, but equally bad to maybe lose my career that I’d worked so hard to get, especially, this late-stage best part of my career. Best part of most airline pilots’ career happens late in their career. And I’m thinking, man, maybe my career’s gonna be over with, so.

[00:17:19] Scott White: So yeah, so I think there’s, there’s that aspect not just of having cancer, but the psychological part too, and how’s it gonna affect your daily life? I mean, so

[00:17:30] Ericka Clinton: even just thinking you could lose love doing the most, which is

[00:17:35] Ericka Clinton: flying,

[00:17:36] Scott White: Now I was very… E- exactly, and, and, and, most airline pilots, you fight really hard to get to the major airline level, and so much of your career for the next 30 or 40 years depends on your health. If you lose your health, your, your career’s over with. It’s not quite like working in a cubicle where, okay, I can come to work sick, or I could lose an eye, or I could lose something, and I could still come to work.

[00:17:58] Scott White: I- in the [00:18:00] airline profession, that’s not the case, so…

[00:18:02] Scott White: so

[00:18:03] FAA Pushes Protection

[00:18:03] Ericka Clinton: als- which then in my mind plays back to the fact of where’s, where’s the FAA in this conversation about protection,

[00:18:12] Scott White: Well, the FAA has taken a much greater stand on this and, and because the, the demographic of the pilot group is coming up with all of these cancers. And so the FAA has taken notice. So the FAA definitely advocates for protection. They, they’re, they have gotten much, much better about advocating for protection, and that’s not just being, clothed better, but using sunscreens on the flight deck, wearing protective eyewear on the flight deck.

[00:18:37] Scott White: So yeah. So I think there’s definitely, there’s definitely been a push for more information getting out there to the pilot group so that we know. Because in my day, like I said, we just, we didn’t know

[00:18:46] Ericka Clinton: Well, more progress, more information,

[00:18:49] Ericka Clinton: more care, which is important.

[00:18:51] Skin Cancer Is Still Cancer

[00:18:51] Ericka Clinton: thank you so much for talking

[00:18:53] Scott White: Hold on

[00:18:53] Ericka Clinton: kind of psychological aspect related

[00:18:56] Scott White: Sure

[00:18:57] Ericka Clinton: Treatment. I mean, I think… [00:19:00] I, I know this personally. I have a client who doesn’t think she has cancer because she

[00:19:05] Ericka Clinton: only has skin cancer,

[00:19:07] Ericka Clinton: And she goes through these procedures, most procedures a lot with

[00:19:13] Scott White: Yeah

[00:19:13] Ericka Clinton: very deep removal of lesions and things that, her dermatologist doesn’t like what they look like.

[00:19:20] Scott White: Sure

[00:19:21] Ericka Clinton: and I, I think there’s this sense that, well, you’re, you’re not gonna have the chemotherapy and radiation that other people have.

[00:19:29] Ericka Clinton: It’s just a little surgery. It should be fine. But, I think as you mentioned, although the procedure is highly successful, and we are grateful for that, it can also be really overwhelming and possibly disfiguring

[00:19:46] Scott White: Absolutely. Absolutely. And some of these Mohs procedures, n-not only can they be disfiguring, but they take a long time to heal for a lot of people too, you

[00:19:52] Ericka Clinton: Yes.

[00:19:53] Scott White: And, the, the, the next step is even if you’ve had a Mohs procedure, keep a very close eye on yourself. I had [00:20:00] a Mohs procedure and the area came back.

[00:20:03] Scott White: So just because you have a Mohs procedure or one of these more advanced procedure doesn’t mean that you’re gonna be… So keep an eye, keep a close eye on yourself. That’s, that’s probably my biggest advice to people

[00:20:13] Ericka Clinton: Always be on the, on the lookout, so to

[00:20:15] Scott White: Absolutely. Absolutely

[00:20:16] Recovery And Body Image

[00:20:16] Ericka Clinton: Um, what surprised you most about the recovery? Was it how long it took?

[00:20:24] Scott White: Yeah.

[00:20:24] Ericka Clinton: like after the procedure?

[00:20:28] Scott White: Oh, sensitive. It, strangely sensitive and numb all at the same time. It’s, it’s a strange thing, I think any time they, they operate on you, your nerve endings are growing back together, and your, your, your skin is trying to figure out, how to rebuild itself.

[00:20:41] Scott White: And in my case it was right on my face. I think for men, the difference between men and women’s a little bit different, right? Men, it’s, it’s almost cool if we have a scar, right? There’s no… It’s like, “Wow, look at that,” “did you get in a bar fight?”

[00:20:52] Scott White: “Yeah, you should see the other guy,” but, right? But for women, not so much. Women are held to a little bit of a different standard, right? It’s,

[00:20:59] Scott White: We’re [00:21:00] allowed to get older. I’m allowed to have gray hair. I get more wrinkles, I become more distinguished. But, women are held to this, what I believe is, is a standard of they have to maintain their youthful appearance at all times, right?

[00:21:13] Scott White: So I think for women it could really be devastating, especially in an area that’s very visible. So there might even be a little bit of that. But, for me I, I didn’t care. I mean, I am a little bit vain. I, I’m, I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little bit vain. But it was upsetting to see what I looked like after the procedure.

[00:21:32] Scott White: But I healed over time, and today I feel good about the way I look. But yeah, there, there’s definitely like I say, that psychological component of how’s this all gonna turn out? Because boy, when you first come out of the surgery you don’t look very good. But the body does do this amazing job, especially, I think, on your face, because your face is so vascular.

[00:21:51] Scott White: It does this amazing job of healing itself, and I was very fortunate. I was very fortunate.

[00:21:56] Ericka Clinton: thank goodness for

[00:21:58] Scott White: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:58] Ericka Clinton: because also I was just [00:22:00] thinking as you were saying it, I was like if you have this procedure on your arm or your leg, you can cover that.

[00:22:05] Ericka Clinton: When

[00:22:06] Scott White: your face is a different story. Yeah.

[00:22:08] Ericka Clinton: you’re…

[00:22:09] Ericka Clinton: This is how you interact

[00:22:10] Ericka Clinton: with the world.

[00:22:11] Eye Cancer Surgery Details

[00:22:11] Scott White: Now my eye, I will tell you with my eye, I, I was very, very fortunate. I live in Memphis, Tennessee, where we have St. Jude, one of the very leading cancer hospitals in the United States. And although they have a very large pediatric presence, they also have an adult presence as well.

[00:22:27] Scott White: And a lot of the doctors that practice at St. Jude also have adult practices as well, as well. And I was very lucky to be referred to an ocular oncologist who is also, I believe, an oculoplastic surger- surgeon. A- and this individual is, is exceptionally talented, and he’s very, very well-known, and I was very lucky to be referred to him.

[00:22:49] Scott White: He successfully removed all of my cancer from my eye. Now, I left that procedure… That procedure I had to be, It was an in- it was an outpatient procedure, but I was [00:23:00] sedated very heavily for that, and I didn’t feel very good when I woke up, mostly from the anesthesia. But I came out of that surgery with 10 sutures in my eyeball, and although these sutures, they’re, they’re, they’re they dissolve over time.

[00:23:13] Scott White: They don’t have to go in and remove them. They just dissolve over time. It was uncomfortable, for sure. What’s funny is today, to the naked eye, you can’t see the scar on my, on my eyeball, but every six months I’m followed by my ocular oncologist. And under a microscope, every… he’ll have other doctors look at my eyes as well, and everybody says the same thing.

[00:23:35] Scott White: They said, “Oh, yeah, there’s your scar.” Now, you can’t see it. You would never notice it on me. But if you look under a– if you have one of those slit lamp exams like they do in the, in the, optometrist office or, or something, you can see it like that. But, I was lucky visually with my, my eyeball surgery that there was no real long-lasting scars, if you will.

[00:23:58] Scott White: Like, nobody would notice [00:24:00] that I had surgery in my eye. So

[00:24:03] Ericka Clinton: amazing. And of

[00:24:04] Scott White: part was kinda nice. The,

[00:24:05] Lifelong Monitoring And FAA

[00:24:05] Scott White: the bad part is I, I asked him in my last my last appointment, I said, “Will there ever be a time where you won’t follow me?” And he said, “No, you will always be followed. You do have one of those cancers that can come back.”

[00:24:18] Scott White: And I’ve been cancer-free with that one now about six years. I did have to do after that surgery, I did have to do a topical interferon eye drop that was, It’s kinda like doing a topical chemotherapy,

[00:24:30] Scott White: That he said really reduces your chances of the cancer coming back. And thankfully, so far I’ve been cancer-free.

[00:24:36] Scott White: But I am being followed every six months. The FAA knows that I’m being followed, and aside from having to submit some extra paperwork to the FAA each year I’m allowed to continue to fly, which is nice.

[00:24:49] Ericka Clinton: That’s wonderful. That’s

[00:24:50] Scott White: Yeah

[00:24:51] Ericka Clinton: wonderful. That’s

[00:24:51] Ericka Clinton: Your sight was maintained.

[00:24:53] Scott White: Yeah, and

[00:24:54] Ericka Clinton: you to fly,

[00:24:56] Scott White: fortunate. I have 20/20 vision. I’m 61 years old, I don’t even have to wear [00:25:00] cheaters. So, it’s just that all my friends that are my age are wearing cheaters and borrowing their wives’ cheaters, everything. I have great vision. I’m super, super fortunate

[00:25:08] Ericka Clinton: So terms of healing, is there anything that you wish someone had told you about what the healing process would look like?

[00:25:20] Scott White: Yeah, what’s interesting is i- in my case, there was no talk about the healing process prior to the procedure being done, and I really had no idea how invasive it could be. Now that may have changed in the past several years since I had my procedure done. I remember walking out of the clinic all three times thinking, “Wow, that turned out to be a lot more than I thought it was gonna be.”

[00:25:44] Scott White: And, and mostly because it wasn’t discussed prior to the procedure being done. Now, like I say, that might have changed today because the procedures I had were several years ago

[00:25:53] Ericka Clinton: I get the sense working with people with cancer that there’s still so much that they don’t get [00:26:00] told.

[00:26:00] Scott White: Yeah. And I’m almost wondering, is that because they don’t want to scare you beside, I mean, having cancer on its own is scary enough, but

[00:26:08] Scott White: Having to face a procedure to hopefully eradicate your cancer, yeah, I mean, it’s a lot. And maybe they don’t want to tell you because maybe they’re afraid you’ll change your mind or maybe not want to have the procedure or, I mean, you find yourself making choices, right?

[00:26:24] Scott White: And so, but I know in my case the, the procedure and how invasive it could be was really not discussed beforehand. And I think in the, in the Mohs scenario, maybe it can’t be because I think with Mohs they’re not quite sure how much they have to take, right? So there could be some of that too

[00:26:40] Ericka Clinton: And it’s a lot to have to share with someone who’s

[00:26:44] Scott White: Oh, yeah

[00:26:45] Ericka Clinton: Told that they have this very serious illness.

[00:26:49] Ericka Clinton: But I also know that that can be part of what becomes more traumatizing for people is n- not knowing feeling again like they, like there’s no [00:27:00] agency,

[00:27:00] Ericka Clinton: Are no

[00:27:00] Ericka Clinton: choices. You

[00:27:01] Ericka Clinton: just have to go down this path.

[00:27:03] Scott White: Yeah.

[00:27:05] Ericka Clinton: and

[00:27:05] Scott White: Yeah

[00:27:06] Ericka Clinton: think, I think there, I think there could be a middle ground

[00:27:09] Scott White: Yeah. No, I agree. I agree.

[00:27:10] Prevention And Sunscreen Habits

[00:27:10] Scott White: Now, the one bit of advice that my dermatologist told me, a- and it’s held true for me, is if your body is making skin cancer, it’s gonna make more. So the big thing is just always, always, always keep an eye on yourself. Go in and get your skin checkup once every, I think my dermatologist recommends once every six months, but whatever your doctor is recommending, just keep a really close eye on yourself because if you, if your body’s making it, it’s gonna make more

[00:27:42] Ericka Clinton: So post skin cancer, besides that really amazing piece of information,

[00:27:47] Ericka Clinton: Is then always be on top of knowing what’s going on in your skin,

[00:27:52] Scott White: Sure

[00:27:52] Ericka Clinton: getting your regular checkups and follow-ups.

[00:27:55] Ericka Clinton: Do they also give you advice about, like, what to use on your skin, what [00:28:00] to

[00:28:00] Scott White: Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah, absolutely. What to avoid, what to use, what they recommend. Absolutely. And, the sunscreens have become a lot better, right? Now I’m married to an esthetician, so I’m very, I’m very informed as to what’s out there. She is on me all the time,

[00:28:16] Ericka Clinton: Okay

[00:28:17] Scott White: sunscreen. And you know what?

[00:28:19] Scott White: I don’t know if I’d be as informed if I wasn’t married to an esthetician to tell me all these things. And, and I, I see her in her practice always giving that same advice to all of her clients. And we’re lucky today we have a lot more options to protect yourself. We just didn’t have that when I was a kid or as a young adult.

[00:28:39] Scott White: It just, it didn’t exist

[00:28:41] Wife The Esthetician Ally

[00:28:41] Ericka Clinton: well let’s, let’s talk about your wife for a second. As you

[00:28:43] Ericka Clinton: said, she is a

[00:28:44] Scott White: sure. He is

[00:28:48] Ericka Clinton: did her knowledge just h- help you navigate this process, in her professional role, but

[00:28:56] Scott White: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And she watches me like a hawk [00:29:00] too, you can imagine. But, she watches all of her clients not just me. It’s, it’s… I know that’s a very big part of what she does. Not just providing, some of the treatments that she offers, but she also keeps a very close eye on all of her clientele.

[00:29:15] Scott White: And if she sees something she doesn’t like, she refers people all the time

[00:29:20] Ericka Clinton: Okay. And is

[00:29:21] Scott White: So

[00:29:22] Ericka Clinton: that something that you think aestheticians understand, that they have this responsibility to

[00:29:27] Scott White: I think so. I, I think now, from what I understand, I see and hear my wife talking to a lot of her professional friends, and that seems to be a topic of conversation quite a bit.

[00:29:39] Ericka Clinton: Good.

[00:29:40] Scott White: Yeah. Yeah

[00:29:40] Advice For Fellow Pilots

[00:29:40] Ericka Clinton: All right, one last question.

[00:29:42] Scott White: Sermon

[00:29:43] Ericka Clinton: What would you say to other pilots who haven’t thought about this as a concern?

[00:29:50] Scott White: Well, I would say go get checked. Keep a really close eye on yourself. The, the problem for pilots is, is that we all have this [00:30:00] fear that if we report something to the FAA at our next medical exam, we’re gonna lose our medical certificate, and if we lose our medical certificate with the FAA, we become unable to operate an aircraft, and most pilots don’t want that to happen to them.

[00:30:15] Scott White: So I think there’s this little bit of this fear of going and getting looked at or going and getting checked, because now if you do that, that’s a reportable event, and maybe that could jeopardize your profession. But I think, like I said earlier, the FAA has, has become a lot more understanding with this type of stuff, and my biggest pitch to people is just keep an eye on yourself.

[00:30:37] Scott White: Because I think pilots, we’re very, very good at thinking that we’re in control, because typically in our profession we are,

[00:30:46] Scott White: But, stuff like this can pop up, and, and if it does, if you let it go, it can go from being something that would be very easily treatable to something that could be devastating.

[00:30:56] Scott White: is, if you see something, say something

[00:30:59] Ericka Clinton: Good [00:31:00] advice all the way around.

[00:31:01] Wrap Up And Thanks

[00:31:01] Scott White: Well, thank you

[00:31:02] Ericka Clinton: regardless of where you work, if you see something, say something.

[00:31:07] Scott White: Absolutely

[00:31:08] Ericka Clinton: Thank you so much, Scott. This

[00:31:10] Scott White: You’re welcome. Well, thanks for having me today. It’s been nice, nice talking to you

[00:31:13] Ericka Clinton: We really appreciate all that you’ve shared, and I know that the folks who listen to this pod- podcast just got a wealth of information that they probably didn’t anticipate by

[00:31:23] Ericka Clinton: tuning in today.

[00:31:25] Scott White: well, thank you for having me, and I’m glad to share what I’ve been through and, and hopefully some of my knowledge gets passed on to other people through the process

[00:31:33] Ericka Clinton: I hope so. I hope so. Well, Cub Lab readers, have a great day, and

[00:31:37] Scott White: Thank you

[00:31:38] Ericka Clinton: enjoy today’s podcast.