Author Archives: Nicole

The Selfie of the Frequent Tanning Bed User

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By now, you’ve probably seen the news story of a young woman named Tawny who used to use a tanning bed frequently in her teens. The graphic image contained in the story shows a beautiful young lady with red blisters and scabs all over her face after a round of treatment for her basal cell and squamous cell cancer lesions…. Read more »

Amelanotic Nodular Melanoma – Who’s Looking for Information

I’m noticing an interesting trend here on Pink Melanoma. There seems to be lots of inquiries regarding what amelanotic nodular melanoma is and specifically people landing on a previous page here on the blog. Look, I’ll be honest. I really hope people are searching that term because they’ve heard how wildly entertaining this blog is. But the reality is, people… Read more »

What dermatologists wish we knew about skin cancer

There was a post on msn.com entitled 6 Things Dermatologists Wish We Knew About Skin Cancer. The article is a good read, with stats that give valid reasons why we need to make sure that we see a dermatologist for those annual skin checks. The obvious risk factors are mentioned – you used tanning beds, or you have fair skin,… Read more »

Stormy weather makes my head hurt, but at least my scar is quiet!

It is Spring time and Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that April, not May, was supposed to bring the showers. We had a glorious weekend while our out-of-town guests were here, blue skies, low humidity, and highs in the 80s. But on Monday, as soon as they were about to fly out, the skies started clouding up. It’s been… Read more »

Four months since the excision

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4 month scar

Although it seems hard to believe, it has been four months since the excision where cancer was removed from my knee area. For the most part, I think my healing process is going well. Yes, I had the infection; yes, I have bizarre pain and achiness; yes, the scar is still purplish and prominent. But the pink melanoma that trespassed… Read more »

Remember when I said I was going to get back out there and live?

OK, backstory – I’ve got a friend, Natasha, who’s a year younger than me and who grew up in the house that is directly behind my parents’ house. I’m not going to say that we were best buddies growing up; and to be honest, if it wasn’t for Facebook, I probably would have no idea where she was. But the… Read more »

How did I get so out of shape? I’m blaming the darn cancer…

Yesterday, I woke up in one of those moods where I didn’t really want to go downstairs to the gym (mostly because my hair was an utter wreck that not even a ponytail could fix). I decided that I would pop in a work-out DVD and do something in the comfort of my living room. Sadly, my kickboxing DVD has… Read more »

Getting my leg strength back – slowly

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Since my excision, I’ve been trying to be good about walking and getting my leg strength back. This morning, at the suddenly crowded gym, there were no treadmills to be found. However, there was one lone elliptical available. I used to use the elliptical a lot to get cardio in back before the whole cancer thing. I thought – why… Read more »

Using herpes to cure melanoma?

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A friend of mine sent me a recent article from Fox News. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Fox News is not exactly a bastion of medical or scientific reporting in my book. But the article talks about how researchers at a cancer institute in Utah is engineering the herpes virus and injecting them directly into melanoma tumors…. Read more »