Our temps are very similar for averages Marty. We get some cold days, but it's not all that bad. At least not last year... :/
I have solar clothes for summer, bought from a catalogue. I guess it started on my hands about 7 years ago, just little spots.
This is not skin cancer. (most folks freak at first) It started after my 4th pregnancy, and it was tiny spots on my knuckles. Now, everything is about 80% pure white....lots of little blue veins. My is turning white in patches too. Some pigment thing, possibly related to thyroid issues. I do take thyroid meds now, but I have to avoid the sun almost entirely. Thats easy when your jobs are managing a kitchen at a school, a cake shop, and a coin/currancy shop. I do chores just as the sky lightens, and right at sunset. My poor DH has had to do most of the work on the outside of the house during our restoration, which leaves me inside sanding and stripping (floors and windows). Oh, and it works out that redoing plaster is a lot like frosting the sides of a cake, so I'm golden.
Janet, I'm so glad you caught it!
Marty, very interesting, glad you knew and have the UV clothing, its saved me many times. Our high school-er plays soccer competitively so lots of time spent outside. Your new paler skin is what color I am naturally, aside from the freckles. Even your eyes and hair are effected? Do the doctors know the cause?
Quote: That an interesting question. The answer is twofold. First answer is thyroid, this started, they checked it, it was off. The meds haven't changed anything. Hyper pigmentation (goes by a few other names) effects mostly Caucasian and Asian women. It can spontaneously revert. It can be mild, leaving a few white spots, or sections, and it can be severe, leading rarely to complete albinism, with its associated health risks. It can change eye color.
Now, the rest of the story... I was working my pre-med at the time, so I made this my honors project for genetics. Dr. Moore suggested testing my parents against myself first for parentage, since oddly, my mom is a red head with green eyes, and my dad had dark hair and blue eyes. My dads parents both had full blue eyes, as do all his siblings. My moms parents also both have blue eyes, with Hazel and blue being the eye color of she and her sisters. Genetically, on the surface it is impossible for me to have level 4 brown eyes (the darkest brown). Tests showed I am indeed my parents child, which forced us to look at hidden alleles (your DNA is basically 2 whole people, the one you see-who you really are genetically, and the one you don't see-you carry genes for a different person in you cells, but you don't use it yourself - you pass on genetic material from both "people" in your DNA - just in case you didn't know that) Somehow, I have a recessive genetic variation in my pigment, and there are other cases of people like me who are somehow darker eyed and darker haired (level 3 and 4 the darkest possible) but Caucasian from pale parents who actually have migrating or disappearing skin pigment.
I've got another pic for you, since my skin was never as dark as it is in the dark patches until I lost pigment elsewhere. I even have some very very dark spots (tested but non-cancerous) where my pigment is collecting. So, basically all my pigment first migrates, then disappears. So, while I used to be very fair with very dark auburn hair and almost black eyes, I'm now a white and dark haired old lady, with some areas in between, waiting to see what the end picture is myself. The good news is It doesn't appear to effect your health in any way except risks from the sun.
Here is one area getting darker, like my armpits and my inner thighs.
When kids and people ask me about my skin color (I refuse to wear make up now, I refuse to hide and be embarrassed about something I cannot control) I tell them I'm a calico. I tell them the universe loves variety, and lots of skin colors on people and animals, and its decided to test them all out on me at once. Then I ask them which is their favorite.
(end of lesson on Martys skin - but how do I get my buff and greys toulouse to be calico now? LOL)
