Melanoma Warriors
You cannot tell by looking at us, but we are warriors. We faced death. We fought melanoma skin cancer after it metastasized inside our bodies and we waged war. AND WE WON!!
As I enter the 12th year of being NED, No Evidence of Disease, I want to share a little bit about the stages, as I have experienced.
Surviving : first 1-5 years : during this time I was fearful ALL the TIME of a reoccurrence. I spent a lot of time truly being in fear that the cancer would return. Because my diagnosis had survival rate of 5% to make it 5 years, I was convinced it would come back and I did not want to be surprised once it came back.... I was also recovering from the massive amount of drugs that were used to save my life. Personally, I had 2+ years of treatment in 6 months, all at once, with a treatment called biochemotherapy.
Surviving : next stage 5- 10 years: survivors guilt hits. This is a real feeling. As you being to realize it is a miracle you survived and that others in the melanoma community are dying survivor's guilt can hit you. While I was still dealing with chemo brain ( a fogginess that affected my short term memory) and fatigue I knew I had to give back. I had to process this may medical event I had been through. I wrote a short memoir style book to record my feelings as well became involved with Aim at Melanoma to raise money and awareness for this often misunderstand deadly cancer. People often think you can just cut it out and do not know that it is so deadly. click link for access to my story via kindle:
Scanxiety is when you suffer massive fear and anxiety during semi annual and annual checkups. Melanoma requires YEARS of follow up checks that include blood draws, CT scans with and without contrast, and MRIs. These take a day out of your life, along with travel to the cancer center where you have to be reminded that you are a cancer patient. It is very STRESSFUL.
I share this blog to provide HELP and AWARENESS to those affected by melanoma. Feel free to check previous entries that document the YEARS & all the varied emotions I have had throughout the experience. LOVE YOU ALL and thank you for reading and sharing my story.
