Vitamin E Oil, Silver Spring Store, and Skin Cancer

Ok, this review is may be a bit all over the place, because I have not one but THREE topics to cover:

-          Vitamin E Oil

-          A new (to me) Trader Joe’s that I visited today in Silver Spring, Maryland

-          And a medical issue I have been dealing with for the last couple of months but haven’t mentioned here, skin cancer

Which topic shall I start with??  Maybe the biggest – the skin cancer.  Let’s discuss that quickly and get it out of the way!!

Yeah.  So.  I had basal cell carcinoma.  The GOOD parts about this kind of skin cancer are:  it is the most common form of skin cancer and super treatable if caught early.  The BAD parts about it in my case were:  it wasn’t caught early (yes, I knew I had it and delayed going to the doctor) AND it was in a hard to cut out place – the top/side corner of my nose – RIGHT BY MY EYE…  And the fact that it was THERE is why I had put off going to the doctor.  It was a spooky location to imagine someone coming at with a knife!!!

I won't show the grossest photo here, but let's peek at a shot just 24 hours after closing surgery shall we??

 But come at it with a knife they did.  I had the cancer cut out with a surgery known as MOHS earlier this month.  It ended up being a bigger “hole in my face” than they had expected, but I actually went home with said hole covered with a bandage and waited until day 2 of surgery – the CLOSE.  The MOHS doctor did not want to CLOSE, due to the close proximity to my eye…  So, she referred me to an ocular plastic surgeon to close, which turned out to be just the right thing to do since it was a tricky hole to sew up!!

Look!  96 hours after they sewed the hole up...

And here is right after they took the stitches out!

So, the long and the short of it is:  I had basal cell carcinoma on my face, one doctor cut that sucker out, and another doctor sewed me up!!  It has been 18 days since MOHS now and I am looking pretty good (if I do say so myself!).  and it is now the VITAMIN E STAGE!  This means that I am to put Vitamin E oil on the scar, with the intention of making the scar less visible.  I am supposed to apply it twice daily until I go back to the surgeon in four weeks. 

Still the same price it was when I reviewed it 2 years ago - only $3.99

And where did I get the Vitamin E Oil??  Why, at TRADER JOE’S of course!!!  I had a tiny bit at home, but bought a new bottle today.  So that leads to part 2 of this piece – VITAMIN E OIL!  It is great for your skin.  It can be found in most drug stores.  And it is expensive.  That is, unless you but it at TJ’s!  I wrote a review of it way back on day 77 of this blog (in 2015), and I still stand by it today.  Here you go:  Vitamin E Oil Review link

Now part 3 – A NEW (to me) TRADER JOE’S!!

Believe it or not there are still Trader Joe’s stores in my vicinity that I have not ever visited!  CRAZY, eh??  Last night I passed one in Silver Spring, Maryland but did not have time to stop and check it out.  So you know where I was today!  Yup, right back at that Trader Joe’s to see how it fared compared to the 27 other Trader Joe’s locations I have visited!

The way the parking lot is set up makes it hard to get a good photo of the outside of this store.

First and foremost – the parking is NOT GOOD!!!  Oh man, parking at this store is sooooo hard!  Granted, it was a Saturday morning when I was there, which is a busy time.  But still!!  NOT enough parking spots.  I even witnessed a PARKING SPOT FIGHT!!  It never got to actually throwing blows, but it was a yelling fight!  Here is what happened:  when I got there I couldn’t find a spot to park in the front, so I followed the “more parking” signs around to the back and eventually found a tight spot.  I did my shopping, and on the way back to my car I heard a honk.  I looked up to see what had happened:  a guy in an Acura mini-van/SUV sort of thing had been waiting in his vehicle for someone to pull out of a spot.  As the person was pulling out, a guy driving a Lexus stepped on the gas and whipped into it from the other direction!!!  Oh, the Acura man was not happy….  He rolled down his window and yelled, “I WAS WAITING FOR THAT SPOT!!!  I WAS HERE FIRST!” to which Mr. Lexus replied, “No you weren’t…”.  Well that is a 3^rd grade response if I have ever heard one!!!  Mr. Acura would have none of it!!  “YES I WAS!!!!  I WAS WAITING!”.  And you can guess Mr. Grown-Up Lexus’ reply, “Nuh-uh….”.  Repeat, repeat…  Mr. Acura asked Mr. Lexus to leave the spot, and of course Mr. Lexus would not.  Mr. Acura ended up screaming something like, “You and your Lexus are jerks!!!”.  I stood around with my cart as the Lexus boys exited their car and sauntered into the store and the Acura guy found another spot.  I wondered if there might be a little “car scratching with a key” as he passed the offending vehicle, but he just kept walking.  Heaven knows what happened if they ran into each other in the produce aisle of the store!!!

While the parking is sparse, the cars parked there seem cool.  There were lots of hybrids, and some fun “hippy” bumper stickers, like this one (which I left a sticky note on):

Cool sticker!

And this was on another car was good, too!

The store itself is nice.  It is clean, has good lighting, and is well stocked.  The artwork is really good!  One thing they do NOT have is any alcohol.  I always feel sorry for grocery stores in Maryland because their regulations do not allow them to have even beer or wine.  What a rip off.  This TJ’s location still carries the smaller, double decker carts, which I really like to use.  But it is odd that some stores have them and others do not, because when I asked once why our usual store got rid of them, it was because many employees were getting BACK INJURIES because of bending down to take stuff out of the lower section!  That makes sense to me.  What doesn’t make sense is why some stores still have them?  Anyway, employees of the Silver Spring store were friendly.  One guy working a register was super happy and was saying loudly how he had his “swag” today 😊.  Way to bring your swag to work, friend!!

Artwork is fun

New Items sign with a stork.  Get it???  A stork!

This was my favorite artwork in the store.  The Silver Spring piece has the Maryland flag on it.  Cool!

I ended up having to go BACK to the store after I had left and park again because I got a text from David asking me to grab bananas, milk, and blueberries.  This time I had to drive all the way around the building, then still wait for a spot for a few minutes.  Ugh. 

There you have it! 

And remember friends – if you see something odd/funky/weird on your skin, go get it checked out!  Better to catch it early.  And if you need Vitamin E oil, Trader Joe’s sells it.  And if you are not an aggressive parker, don't go tot he Silver Spring, Maryland store during a busy time.  Just don't.

My scar as of yesterday (before I started the Vitamin E oil treatment!).  It is getting better!

Vitamin E oil:

Price:  still $3.99 2 years after the original review

Rating:  still 4.25