Ive been debating about posting this for a couple of weeks, but Ive told enough people that its almost public now anyway - I have become a statistic - I had surgery last week for melanoma, a skin cancer. I had to fly to Honolulu to have it done, they took 3 huge circles off me, one on each upper arm, one on the back of my shoulder. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and back in the 1960s there wasnt really anything like sunscreen/sunblock, my mom would put one of my dads white undershirts on me if I was going to be outside swimming for a long time, but I had a few really bad blistering sunburns as a kid, the worst was in Mexico at Puerto Penasco/Rocky Point when I was about 10 years old. I was never one to just lay out in the sun, and was very careful about making sure my kids were covered when we went to the beach. Research shows that just one bad sunburn as a kid will possibly set you up for skin cancer later in life. Then I moved to Hawai`i when I was 19 years old in 1976, and used sunscreen if I went to the beach, but not just walking around during the day. The lab report from the 3 big chunks shows the margins are clear, so they got all of the cancer cells around those sites. But...if youve had one melanoma, theres a 30% chance youll get another one, and Ive had 3, so I expect to see another one. This started with a brown spot that formed a few years ago, Id been going to a dermatologist every 6 months to watch it, then just a couple months ago in June I noticed the spot had changed, gotten fuzzy & darker, so the doc cut it out. When the lab results came back it showed she didnt get it all, so she biopsied 2 other spots which were confirmed melanoma also, resulting in the trip to Honolulu. Now Im vigilant about sunscreen, hat, and even bought UPF50 clothing (clothes are UPF rated, sunscreen & cosmetics are SPF). I just want everybody to be aware of the need to care for yourself & your family outdoors, keep an eye on changes to any freckles or moles, and dont hesitate to have a dermatologist check if something makes you wonder! Im gonna have 3 ugly scars, but as of right now Im supposedly cancer-free, I just dont know for how long! Mahalo ke Akua, thanks be to God!!
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 19:33:14 +0000
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