Melanoma: My Story

Melanoma: My Story

 

I am not a sun worshipper and I have never been to a tanning bed.  I am an outdoor kind of girl.  I grew up spending most of the day light hours outside.  We rode bikes and played in the creek.  We played sports, we went on picnics, and we loved the outdoors.  I don't really remember a time I wore sun screen. It was not something my mom really thought about.  I remember having a few sunburns.  Nothing horrible.  That was until my sophomore year of High School when I went on a school trip to Mexico.  During an excursion we were on a boat and I feel asleep for a couple of hours, laying on my stomach and in the direct sun.  It was March and I hadn't felt the sun on my skin for months.  Needless to say I had the most horrible sunburn.  I spent that night in the bathroom barfing.  The following day I stayed in the pool in the shade to stay cool.  My back peeled 4 times and it was all painful.  It lasted for weeks.  Since than I have never had a burn like that.  I have spent many years with a red face and raccoon eyes from wearing sun glasses, though.  With fair/reddish skin and light colored hair I am a magnet for sunburns. 

One day I was in the bathroom changing and my husband wanted to look at something  on my back.  I looked online and found some pictures and it wasn't exactly normal so I called for a Doctors appointment. 

 

This is not a good picture but the Doctor agreed it was concerning so she did a punch biopsy.  It required one stitch so you can see it wasn't very big. The results were in:  Melanoma in situ

I was sent to see a Surgical Oncologist.  She marked the area and did a procedure to remove the melanoma.  It was pretty simple and really didn't even hurt.

She placed 4 stitches and it was expected to be the end of this.

 

It was healing well except for the rash from the tape.

Then I got the phone call that it was Lentiginous Melanocytic Profilateration with severe atypia (consistent with malignant melanoma in situ).

This means this is the best case scenario except for one small thing.  The melanoma extended beyond what was sent to them, which meant I had to go back to have more removed and it would need to be done in an OR.

 

 

Two weeks later I headed to the OR to have a chunk of my back removed.  That's an awful big hole.  The good news is when I woke up and was still loopy I told the surgical staff some great stories!  How embarrassing!

 

Nine stitches this time.  It started out looking pretty good.

 

10 days later It was time to have the sutures removed.  It was dried out but mostly healing well.  The sutures were removed.

 

A few days post suture removal and the middle started to open up.

.

Over the next month it struggled with healing.  It didn't help that I had a reaction to every bandage or dressing that was placed on it.  I had 2 rounds of antibiotics.  Then I was told they should have done  a skin graft and if it didn't heal it was back to the OR.

 

 

 

Finally it started to heal

 



Over two months from the surgery it was finally closed.

 

After a few years this is the nice scar I am left with.

 

 

 

It has taken me a long time to talk about this.  Not many people even know that I went though this.  It was embarrassing.  I felt like I did this to myself and over the years so many people said you need sunscreen and I could hear them all saying I told you so.   The Surgical oncologist completed a very in depth review and felt strongly that the sunburn in Mexico when I was 16 was likely the cause.  It's on my lower back and not an area often exposed to the sun.  That day it was.  After talking to my mom, I learned that she had had a mole removed and it was melanoma.  She failed to share that information with us.  My sister called right away and scheduled an appointment to have some moles looked at.  The Doctor removed them based on family history but thankfully they were not melanoma.  

Why is this so important?

About 2.8 million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancers every year.  About 73,870 of those cases will be melanoma.  About 9,940 people will die from melanoma.  The rates of melanoma have continued to rise for the past 30 years.

What do you need to be concerned about?  A history of sun burns. Open sores; red patches; pink growths; shiny bumps or scars; or pimples that remain after six weeks.

Its best the keep the ABCDE approach
A is for asymmetry.  One side doesn't match the other
B is for border irregularity.  The edges are ragged, notched or blurred
C is for color.  The color is not the same throughout
D is for diameter.  The growth is larger than a pencil eraser
E is for evolution.  There is a change is the size, shape, symptoms or color.

This is not a great picture but you can get an idea about what is normal and what is not.

 

What do you need to do.

Wear clothing to protect you from the sun

Avoid the sun at peak times

Wear hats

WEAR SUNSCREEN: 

when it comes to this I recommend finding the product that works best for you.  I have sensitive skin an found some products didn't work for me. Once I found a product that worked you can trust that I have tube of it everywhere. 

 

Protect yourself so you don't have to go through this.