I think that’s the cheesiest headline for a blog post I’ve ever written and I’ve written a few doozies over the past almost 4 years… Anyway, I should make it clear that I know absolutely nothing about Dancing With the Stars. In fact, I really don’t know much about TV shows in general anymore. The last time I voluntarily turned… Read more »
I was trying to answer a message sent to me by a reader and as I was poking around here to find a post that I had written a few years ago, I realized that I was sitting on 249 posts. I figured I would use my 250th post to thank you for reading this little ramble-fest of mine and… Read more »
Malignant melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. To readers of this blog, that shouldn’t come as any surprise. And for years, we’ve been taught the ABCDE rules on detecting melanoma. A stands for asymmetry; B is for borders so anything with ill-defined borders is suspect; C is for the color and whether the mole or lesion has more… Read more »
In a recent news story out of Tampa, a widow describes how she lost her husband to amelanotic melanoma. Spreading from a lesion on his calf into the lymph system, the cancer ended up claiming the man’s life after a 3-year battle against the disease. He had a lump in his groin that signified the spread of the cancer and… Read more »
So, it’s just about two years ago that my pink spot made an appearance on my right knee. You know, it’s so funny because when it first sprang out of my skin, I didn’t know that it was some weird form of skin cancer. I didn’t know that it was something that needed to be cut out of my flesh… Read more »
Today marks the year anniversary of my excision. It’s strange how time can fly. It seems like that day was long ago and yet, also feel like it was only yesterday. It’s been a year of worry, fear, sadness, and pain (literal and metaphorical); but it’s also been a year of acceptance, happiness, hope, and even joy. The excision removed… Read more »
It’s not recent, but a 2012 research study concluded that smartphone apps that are supposed to help people with identifying suspicious moles and growths actually are unreliable. In turn, people delay getting treatment for something. And as we all know, particularly with melanoma, delays are not a good thing. The study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a… Read more »
There was a recent article on Prevention.com about a doctor’s advice to avoid cancer. The usual suspects were there: avoid stress (could someone explain how in modern society we can avoid stress? Maybe we can mitigate it but there’s really no way to completely avoid it…); exercise regularly; and volunteering. But one of the items concerned mold, specifically the types… Read more »
Michael Flatley, the Irish dancer most well-known for Riverdance, was diagnosed in 2003 with malignant melanoma. He states in an article in the Irish Mirror that his diagnosis prompted him to take a hard look at his life and reevaluate his priorities. Wealth and material things were no longer as important as his family, friends, and his art. Getting a… Read more »
Amelanotic nodular melanoma obviously is one of the prime examples of skin cancer not arising from an existing mole. At least, in my experience, that is true. Now a study reported in June 2015 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting has added its voice. According to the analysis of researchers, they discovered that non-mole melanomas “tend to be… Read more »