For those of us living in Austin right now, it’s mayhem. It’s Spring Break for the kids (public schools and UT), the Rodeo, and the mother of all city festivals – SXSW. If you don’t know what SXSW is, picture 200,000 people invading your town with a bunch of tents, food trucks, random parties taking over all kinds of buildings,… Read more »
Today I had my first 3 month check-up with the dermatologist that initially biopsied the spot that would be diagnosed as melanoma. I hadn’t seen her since she shaved the spot off, so the first couple of minutes was spent talking about my excision, my healing process, my scar. Then the “fun” began. Although it wasn’t as invasive as I… Read more »
Today I had my follow-up with the surgeon who performed my excision so she could check the scar. It’s been just about 10 weeks since the procedure. It took awhile to get into a room and seen. Hopefully, that’s not a sign that there’s more melanomas getting looked at. The doctor finally came into room, took a quick look at… Read more »
So, after a glorious week off, I’m back to reality. It’s freezing here in Austin and I’m not exaggerating. It’s really freezing here, talk of potential icing – which makes being back from 80 and sunny weather a bit harder to take. I had a very relaxing time in Mexico. Surprisingly, I got no resistance to bringing anything less than… Read more »
So today, as I was browsing my Twitter feed, there was a notice about today being World Cancer Day. I see these types of things all the time on feeds, today is… Sister’s Day, Best Friend’s Day, Bizarre Food Day… I actually looked it up. It really is World Cancer Day today. And it feels kinda weird to include myself… Read more »
The Centers for Disease Control have released a report noting that the cost of treating skin cancer has risen 5 times faster than treatment costs for other types of cancer in a time period from 2002 to 2011. The average annual treatment cost for skin cancer increased 126% just from 2002 to 2006. That’s quite a huge jump, particularly when… Read more »
It has been over a month since my excision. The wound is completely closed up and the infection is completely gone. I’m now in the scar phase. To recap, I had an amelanotic nodular melanoma lesion removed from my knee area. The spot was about the diameter of a pencil eraser, but the excision took a pretty big chunk of… Read more »
I just read an article in Forbes regarding a study that shows a correlation between drinking coffee and reducing the risk of melanoma. In a large study, people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of melanoma by 20%. Granted, the amount of coffee you have to drink – four or more cups a… Read more »
Something you feel strongly about is the topic for today’s #LoveMe Challenge. I’ll give you one guess what my topic is… I know, I know, someone with skin cancer harping on using sunscreen, I get it. But really, with the scary increase in the numbers of skin cancers being diagnosed rising exponentially, I do feel very strongly about making sure… Read more »
Today was the first day that I made an appearance in the office. The doctor recommended that I not go into the office until the wound was healed and not infected anymore. I finally got the OK and it was really weird to be back among other people again. Especially since no one (except one person) knows the real reason… Read more »