Category Archives: Living with Melanoma

My own personal experience with melanoma

Initial pathology report to close out the year

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My surgeon called and left a message just now. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a call on a holiday eve and didn’t have the ringer turned on. (I think I’m one of the few in today’s American society that doesn’t keep my phone grafted to my fingers…To be honest, I would be just fine if I never had to physically… Read more »

Paranoia, hope, and whatever’s in between

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Now that I know that I can make pink melanoma, I’ve been obsessively looking at all my other moles, regardless of what color they are, what shape they are. I’m sure it’s going to be a lifelong obsession – along with trying to find the highest SPF sunscreen my body will tolerate. Naturally, I’m a little concerned about another pink… Read more »

The excision… it sounds like a title of a horror movie, doesn’t it?

So, if you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering about the surgery to remove my pink melanoma. It’s actually not really surgery at all. In fact, if you want to get all technical, it’s an excision. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. When my dermatologist called me with the news, I admit that I wasn’t thinking as coherently as I… Read more »

How did I get here? Skin cancer and me…

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The prevailing wisdom is that if you avoid tanning beds, wear strong SPF, and reduce your exposure to the strongest rays of the sun, you reduce your chance of being diagnosed with skin cancer. But what if that advice came just a little too late? I was a typical child of the 80s. I played outside all the time in… Read more »