Melanoma is Not Just Skin Cancer

I was a sun worshiper. As a kid, I spent summer days at the pool with my friends. I was constantly on the quest for the perfect tan. Being a fair skinned, blue-eyed, blonde didn’t make things easy, but I was determined. I’d coat myself Coppertone Tanning Oil SPF 2, spread out my Scooby-Doo beach towel, and plop down for an afternoon of penetrating UVA and UVB rays. Aaaahhh, it was a feeling like no other. Of course I’d spend evenings battling a low grade fever while my mom slathered Noxema on my bright pink skin, but that didn’t matter. It would soon turn to a nice shade of light brown, mostly consisting of freckles, but anything was better than pasty white.

I achieved several memorable sunburns…

There was the time that I insisted I didn’t need suntan lotion (as we used to call it, not sunscreen or sunblock) when we visited my grandmother in Oklahoma. We were spending the afternoon at the pool and I was bound and determined to attain a righteous tan. That evening I was in so much pain, I had to sleep in my swimsuit because I couldn’t pull the straps off my shoulders.

Then there was the year my mom and step-dad took us on a cruise for Spring Break. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. My old friend the sun was MIA during our entire cruise. Luck would have it that my BFF’s parents had a sun lamp in their bathroom. I shared my disappointment with her and she offered up the sun lamp. One hour later, and 58 minutes too long, I started to feel the pain. I succeeded in burning the whites of my eye (yeah, you’re supposed to close your eyes when you use those) and almost my cornea. My face turned purple and my lips peeled. But hey, I got to spend several days home from school while I recuperated.

The following year my dad took us to Cancun for Spring Break. Of course I had to return to school with an amazing tan so that everyone would ask where I had been. I sprayed hydrogen peroxide (yes, hydrogen peroxide) in my hair and once again refused suntan lotion. I sat by the pool from noon – 2:00pm. I succeeded in turning my hair bright white, my skin a reddish purple, and suffered the pain of blisters on my shins. You can bet kids at school asked where I went though!

When I was in college these really cool things called “tanning beds” started cropping up all over the place. How awesome… just like the face lamps but for your entire body! I’d scrape together the $8 I needed for a 20 minute session, and bake myself until I had red and white stripes on the backs of my legs (the original tanning beds tended to leave bulb marks on fair skinned people). But oh… how relaxing those beds were.

I debated on whether I should tan before my wedding. My common sense lost out and I visited a tanning salon regularly for 2-3 months before the big day. After one session I noticed a mole on my upper left arm that seemed really dark. Hmmm… I thought it was probably dark because I had just finished a tanning session and didn’t give it a second thought.

One month after our wedding I noticed the mole again. It was still really dark, almost black. Why hadn’t it faded with my tan? I mentioned it to my husband and he told me I had better make an appointment with a dermatologist. After years of “accidental” sunburn visits to various dermatologists, I dreaded the lecture I would most likely get. Yes, I know I’m fair skinned, haired and eyed, I know I don’t tan, I know the dangers, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t want to hear the lecture again, so I kept putting off making an appointment.

In January 2004 I found out I was pregnant with my first child. My husband and I were elated. Several weeks later he mentioned the dermatologist visit again and said that he had read on the Internet that pregnancy can increase melanoma occurrences. He was so paranoid! To appease my overprotective husband, I made the appointment. What a waste of time this was going to be. I mean, after all, it was just a mole, right?

I’ll never forget that day. I left work around lunchtime to go to my appointment. I arrived at my dermatologist’s office and was seen right away. I showed him the mole on my arm and braced myself for the lecture. Instead, this is what I heard, “This has to be removed right away. If it’s not melanoma already, it will be.” Huh? My brain wasn’t processing what my doctor had told me. I asked him if I should make another appointment to have the mole removed. He said, “This is probably melanoma. I have to remove it today.” My brain slowly started functioning and I said, “But I’m pregnant.” He reassured me that the numbing agent they’d use on my arm was safe to use during pregnancy. I sat down in a chair and tried to take in what I had just heard. A nurse came and got me and took me to a surgical room. I don’t remember much after that. My arm was numbed with Lidocaine and my doctor removed the suspicious mole. I was then told to call back in a few days to find out the results.

I walked out to my car in a daze, got in, and lost it. I sat in my car bawling like a baby. I managed to call my boss and tell her that I wouldn’t be back, told her what happened, and drove myself home. I spent the rest of the day mentally punishing myself for all those years of harmful sunburns. How could I have been so stupid? I called my husband and my mom and we all talked about “what ifs” and tried to calm ourselves down until my results were back.

Five days later I called my dermatologist’s office to get my results. I was transferred to a nurse who told me that the doctor would call me back. This couldn’t be good. Why couldn’t she just tell me that everything was fine? Forty minutes later my doctor called. I had Stage II Melanoma. He gave me the name of an oncologist at a hospital that had a cancer treatment center. Oncologist? Cancer? I was pregnant. How could this be? I made an appointment with the oncologist. He reviewed my results and told me I was very lucky. My melanoma was .1mm away from needing a lymph node biopsy. He said ordinarily they’d go ahead and do the lymph node biopsy, but didn’t want to risk it in my case since I was pregnant. They weren’t sure how the dye they’d have to use would affect my baby. Instead he recommended a wide area excision and sent me back to my dermatologist.

Another appointment, more Lidocaine, and more skin removed from my arm. This time I could feel my doctor pull my skin up to stitch it back together. I felt a tugging sensation around my elbow. It made me nauseous. I was left with a 4-5” scar across my upper arm. The melanoma that was removed was smaller than the head of a pencil eraser.

One week later my dermatologist called to tell me that the additional tissue they had removed was not cancerous. Thank God. He recommended check ups every six months. My baby girl was born in October of that year, 2004. She’s perfectly healthy. I visit my dermatologist regularly and have had several more moles removed, none of which were melanoma but all looked suspicious.

Here’s what some of you may not know (from the Melanoma Research Foundation):

• 53,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma and 7,800 will die this year.
• Melanoma is the most common cancer in young adults.
• In women aged 25-30, melanoma is the primary cause of death by cancer.
• In women aged 30-35, melanoma is the secondary cause of death by cancer (after breast cancer).
• Melanoma accounts for 71% of all skin cancer deaths.
• If you had one or more blistering sunburns as a child, you’re at risk.

Monthly skin self-examinations are important, especially if you’re at high risk.

I wrote this to inform other people about the possibility of having melanoma. A lot of people I’ve talked with since my diagnosis have had the attitude of, “Oh well, it was just skin cancer. You had a mole removed.” I don’t blame them. That’s what I used to think. Melanoma is not just skin cancer. It’s deadly if it’s not caught and treated in its early stages. As we approach the time of year that people start the mass exodus to warm weather vacations, please remember to protect your skin. Achieving a perfect tan is not worth your life.

Catgirl1007