7 years NED

With the official first day of summer right around the corner, I am seriously amazed and blessed to be here to see it begin. When I was a kid, summer meant endless hours in the sand. So many hours actually, that my twin sister and I had the nicknames "sand fleas." We knew every rock, every rip tide, and all the best places to set up our "beauty salons" in the tide pools.  It was our domain.
  Our hair would become a light strawberry blonde. The sand would be everywhere! Our skin would burn, peel, burn, peel.... all summer. As long as we had a fresh piece of aloe vera to cool our crispy skin, it was okay. Freckles were kisses from the sun.  This was the norm.  We did not, COULD NOT, imagine how we were damaging our skin and the consequences we would pay.

As my teens ended, and I had many-many hours of sun exposure under my belt, my early twenties meant more sun.  I found it entertaining to sunbathe along the Merced River, often "au natural", and again, summers were about the first sunburn and being prepared with aloevera. I did not truly try to prevent sunburns, I simply figured they were a part of my pale skinned life.

In 1992 my Mom called me. She was diagnosed with a melanoma inside her right leg, on her thigh. All I knew was that melanoma kills. I cried thinking she was going to die.  She was lucky and UC Irvine had just opened a skin cancer clinic. A large biopsy and she was cleared. No lymph node biopsy, and simply some chest x-rays to follow up. WE HAD DODGED A BULLET. We all went into "SHADE MODE" and soon forgot this scare.

Fall, 2000:  I was graduating Fresno State, had a  2 year old, and was just beginning my career as a teacher.  And I had a small dark brown spot on the inside of left forearm.  SHIT

It was itchy and required I went to the university health center and had it removed. It was melanoma. This led to a sentinel node biopsy. Wonder of wonders, it had not spread to any lymph nodes, and after a wide excision, I was free to go. Annual chest x-rays and blood work was the protocol for prevention.  10 years passed and I figured I was FREE.

WRONG

Fall of 2010 (10 years after the first melanoma), I had a lump under my left armpit. This lump grew and grew and by the time I was diagnosed, I was stage 4 with months to live.

That was 7 1/2 years ago. I had been given 5-8% chance to live 5 years. Those are some frightening statistics. Yet, for some reason I am still here!  Melanoma Awareness month has come and gone, yet every month is Melanoma Awareness month for me. I beat the odds and am here to warn everyone that "just skin cancer" is SO MUCH MORE. It kills.  Everyday there is someone, somewhere fighting this horrible disease. It is breaking hearts. It is spreading to people's brains, lungs, and other organs. It is so much more than "just skin cancer."

home at last...

I am grateful to be here and will continue to spread the word.

Please see AIM at Melanoma for more info on treatments for melanoma! 
https://www.aimatmelanoma.org/