Summer time, when the living ain't easy
Other than not being able to drink, what really annoys me about my AIH (autoimmune hepatitis) is not being able to sunbathe. Not that I have ever been a big sun worshipper, but I do love to feel the sun's warmth on my skin, gain a healthy glow and also benefit from the feel-good serotonin and bone-strengthening vitamin D. Sadly, one of the downsides of medications used to control this disease is that they make tanning prohibitive. First, the corticosteroids thin the skin increasing our sensitivity to the sun's harmful rays and make sunburn and blistering more likely after far less exposure. Next, the immune-suppressant drugs, such as the chemotherapy drug mercaptopurine which I take, increase our likelihood of skin cancer ten-fold. So what can people like me do in summer? We can slip, slap, slop. Slip. slap, slop was an Australian campaign for staying sun-safe; slip on a shirt, slap on a hat and slop on the sun screen. Last summer I followed the regime rigorously, b