I’m relieved to share I just heard from my doctor’s office and the skin biopsy is not Melanoma. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I guess I must have been concerned more than I realized because I felt myself holding my breath when I saw it was the doctor calling and breathing a huge sigh of relief when she told me the results. I’m not sure if I’m the only one out there, but when I was diagnosed with a Melanoma in 1990, I really had no idea how serious of a cancer it is. In fact when the biopsy taken and sent from Germany to a Military Hospital in the States and was lost in route, and they called to tell me after many apologies that fortunately they had not sent the entire sample, and they would have the results soon, I wasnt worried. The seriousness of it only became apparent as I was speaking to my doctor when he called to tell me it was a Melanoma and it would require a more serious surgical procedure by an Ear Nose and Throat doctor because of its location. Prior to that I wondered why everyone seemed so concerned and it wasnt until the moment I asked him, “so what if you don’t get it all, does it come back in another location (I’m thinking another spot on the skin)?” and his response after what seemed like a very long silence, “it’s fatal”. It was then I got it and then began my education of the seriousness of skin cancer, the dangers of baking in the sun and tanning beds. Ive since learned Melanoma is not just a simple benign skin issue that can easily be resolved; it’s one of the fastest growing forms of cancer and the most unresponsive to many of the conventional forms of treatment i.e. chemo, radiation. The most effective treatment is cutting and praying you get it before it goes into the lymph system and is spread throughout the body. One of the ‘positives’ about it is although it’s fast growing, it’s usually visible and if caught early the prognosis is good. Mine in 1990 was on the underside of my jaw, a mole I had since I can’t remember. I couldnt see it daily and didnt realize how it was changing. My Mother came for a visit and said you need to have that looked at (God bless our Mothers)! So I did and the day I went into the Military doc he took one look and said, we’re taking that today. In the end the ENT Doc took a 2” diameter ¼” deep area on the side of my face; thankfully they did not find any cancer cells in the second sample. I share all this to say if you have a mole or irregular skin blemish that is changing, don’t put off having it checked out by a Dermatologist and do it sooner than later. And avoid tanning, sorry I know that bothers a lot of people, but it really isnt worth it if it could end up shortening your life and Melanoma most definitely can. If my sharing this helps one person notice something on themselves or someone else that might be a serious skin cancer and they have it checked out sooner than later, then I feel it was worth sharing:-)
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:38:54 +0000
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