Show Me Some Skin

By and large, I've had a boringly healthy life. My mother was a strong and healthy woman through her 70s. Gratefully, I am a chip off the old block. No heart/joint/diabetes/blood pressure issues like many of my friends. Doctors still comment on me being nearly sixty and on no regular medications.

So when I was diagnosed with Melanoma in 2006, I was shocked.  Shocked by the shell cracking open, but also by the speed at which I justified it. I have fair skin, this damage was likely from all that time on the Santa Cruz beach when I was a teen, or maybe the years under the Arizona sun in my 30s.  It was removed the day it was diagnosed and no follow up radiation or chemo was necessary. I was assigned for quarterly visits for a couple of years. In other words, a pass.

I'm a cancer survivor who doesn't feel like I earned the spot. I didn't have to suffer through treatment. The lesson I failed to learn is the only reason it went down that way was because it was caught early.

Fast forward to 2014, and again a suspicious spot that looked similar to the one that had been on my arm. It looked like a cluster of freckles: no raised areas, no red edges, no center dot. It was biopsied and sure enough, it was a melanoma - and quickly removed. I am now a high risk which means, for now, quarterly visits for life. Another pass.

When I got home, and the Hubs and I were talking things over, he showed me a spot on his forearm and went in for a biopsy and it, too, was a melanoma. He has Italian Mediterranean good tanning skin, and never worried much about time in the sun.  Skin cancer affects all skin types.

There are a lot of types of skin cancer but Melanoma is the most deadly.  An advanced melanoma can move quickly from the surface to the lymph nodes and invade internal organs such as the liver and kidneys. It is as deadly as other forms of cancer if not caught early.  My Doc's rule of thumb is to have any changes in your skin checked out.  Melanoma won't always look like the photos online. 

For me, the gift of Melanoma is its visibility. It lets me actively participate in my health by monthly self-checks, the way I do breast checks.  We get the choice to intervene before it becomes life threatening. As for all those sun worshipper times as kids? Let's make sure our children and grandchildren understand the advantages of sunscreens and cover-ups for a long and healthy life. As it turns out, wrinkles aren't the biggest worry that's out there.