Off topic: One more thing you probably don’t know about me
I’ve struggled with whether or not to share this with you, my good friends and total strangers. Even though it has nothing to do with meetings, it’s had such a profound impact on my life recently (and caused me to be pretty quiet here the past few months) that I think I will talk about it here after all.
This fall I boarded a health roller coaster known as melanoma. Like all cancers, the earlier you catch this most vicious of skin cancers, the better off you are. Unfortunately, mine wasn’t caught all that early. The dermatologist found a tumor on my leg the week before Thanksgiving, and less than three weeks later I was in surgery to have what’s known as a wide local excision (which now is healing into a lovely 10-inch-long scar on my thigh), and a sentinel lymph node biopsy to determine whether or not the melanoma had spread through my lymph system, which is its preferred mode of travel.
After too many weeks of post-surgical pain, healing, and crippling anxiety while waiting for the pathology results, I finally got the word recently that the area around the tumor and the sentinel nodes both turned up negative for cancer cells. If I remain recurrence-free for five years, I’m most likely out of the woods. And the chances of recurrence are pretty low for someone in my clinical circumstances (my surgeon says 5 to 7 percent).
If I hadn’t blown out the knee on my non-melanoma leg during my post-surgery gimp phase, I’d be doing dances of joy (and if anyone was wondering why that woman in the nice suit was limping around in sneakers throughout PCMA, this would be the reason). But I am dancing inside.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to take skin cancer seriously. A few facts to ponder:
- Approximately 47,700 cases per year are currently diagnosed in the United States alone, and the incidence is increasing at the rate of 4.3% per year, one of the fastest increases in occurrence rates of all cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are currently 480,000 cases of melanoma in America today and that there are 7,700 deaths per year from the disease.
I have had the honor of getting to know many people over the past few months who aren’t as lucky as I have been and have moved on to Stages 3 and 4 of this horrible, devious disease that likes to take up residence in lungs, liver, and brains, among other body hot spots. Through immunotherapy and chemotherapy, clinical trials, and surgery upon surgery, their spirit and will to live, their encouragement to keep on fighting, and their ability to let go when the time comes to let go, has changed my life as much as, if not more than, my diagnosis did.
But you do not want to have to join this club.
Please, please, please, I beg you to get that weird mole checked, to challenge your doctor to biopsy it even if they say it’s no big deal (as my doc has done for several years before I insisted on getting a second opinion–just in time, as it turns out). Even if there’s nothing wrong, scan your skin, and that of your loved ones, regularly, and know the risk factors and the ABCDs of melanoma. Make your kids wear sunscreen, no matter how much they yip about it. While you’re at it, slather some on yourself.
It could save your life. And your life, my dear friends and total strangers, is so very, very precious.
Related Topics: Uncategorized
January 18th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Good advice and glad you are on the mend Sue!
All the best,
Tim
January 18th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Sue, I am so happy that your prognosis is so good … I am so sad that you had to go through this … and I am so grateful that you chose to share this with us as it may save a life. Thank you, and continued best wishes.
Kevin
January 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Thank you Sue for ‘going public’ with what could be a very private issue. By going public you have raised awareness and hopefully spurred on others to be careful and to get checkups. More, you have given permission for others living with cancer or AIDs or HIV or depression or other illnesses to go public. As a person living w/ lymphoma, I know the fear of letting others know: will they be cautious around me? will I get work or keep work or stay employed? will people feel awkward about saying something? So many issues. You are terrific! Live long and in good health.
January 20th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Sue,
Am so happy to hear you have come out at the other end of that tunnel with such relatively good news.
Even from afar you have seemed different. Having just come back from visiting a friend with colon cancer and catching up with email (and blog updates) (like your legion of other friends and fans, no doubt) was stopped in my tracks reading your post.
Yes, I am passing this along to several friends and family. My dematologist and friends has been great to give my body the thorough check every six months… insists on it, in fact. Have had one cancer caught in time and three other spots biopsied.
Thank you so much for going public here. Here’s to a great future, keeping that cancer away
warmly
Kare
January 21st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Thank you for your post. I’m glad the prognosis was a good one, but sorry you had to go through the whole ordeal at all. Thank you for the reminder about our health. It is so important, but so easily set aside as we busy our lives with work and other activities.
Best to you!
January 21st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Sue, I commend you for your courage as well as the prompt to ensure each of your reader’s, and their loved ones, physical health. With my husband and I both being very fair and lifelong boaters, we go in regularly every six months for skin-checks once I discovered some suspicious looking patches on my husband’s face. These are pre-cancerous and it has been monitored carefully and we take additional precautions with sun exposure and care for our skin.
Bless you for sharing….and we are thankful it was caught in the nick-of-time!
January 21st, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Sue,
I am SO GLAD that your biopsy came back negative. Woo Hoo!
Melanoma has run in my family. My cousin had one tumor removed, and never had a recurrence. Her dad wasn’t so lucky.
Even though I was adopted and am not biologically related to the people who had it, I do have moles that have irregular borders. This is just one of several indicators of melanoma. I have had regular check-ups, and even though no cancer has been detected, have had one mole removed that could have become an issue.
I applaud you for bringing this up publicly, and thus shining a light on the issue. Plus, it makes me feel that I know you a little better.
Lots of love and good wishes!
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 am
Dear Sue-
I am so happy to hear about your prognosis and I, too, applaud you for sharing your story.
Yesterday I had my annual physical. I am very aware of the need for skin examination because another colleague has recently been battling skin cancer. I asked my doctor if she was going to look over my skin and she said, “I already did”. The word “cursory” springs to mind. Doctors may be aware of this need but we need to be vigilant and insist that their examinations be thorough.
All the best to you, Sue-
Anne
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Sue,
Thanks for reminding us all that we need to be mindful of our bodies and our lives.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Sue, I am so happy for you and glad you put this out there. I too, have gone through this and continue to do so. My first melanoma was diagnosed in 1985 - the protocol at that time as to take 2 in. in each direction around this pencil eraser size mole, and all the way down to the muscle. It was a stage 3 but they did not use chemo or anything else at that time. I made it 4 1/2 years and got another one. That’s when my husband proposed - not sure if it was the diagnosis or just time!!! I have had 6 since then and many, many pre-cancerous things removed. I go to the derm every 3-4 months and they just carve me up and they apologize for doing it. At this point, I say - there are already over 30 scars on my legs so just keep going! I off to have another one removed tomorrow morning. I am the only one in my family with this but at least I’ve gotten all of them to get checked regularly. My derm told me last year that the worst ones they are seeing now are just small red bumps that don’t heal. So I applaude you for bringing this up. Everyone out there - get checked and don’t wait. Wishing you the best, Sue.
Barbara
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Sue,
Its really hard to digest all the health issues out there, but it always hits home when you know the person with a particular health issue and so thank you for sharing and sending a call to action.
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