Melanoma Monday (was yesterday)

Melanoma Monday was yesterday, but I still wanted to remind you all to get checked by your dermatologist.  Skin cancers are on the rise and are deadly.  The good news is they are curable when caught early.  Seeing the dermatologist is easy and it could save your life.

I was diagnosed with Stage 1 melanoma in July 2020 after a yearly checkup.  There was a spot on my chest that honestly didn't look bad, but my doctor spotted it right away and took it off.  I was lucky that it was early and after a simple surgery to "hog out" the area on my chest, I was fine.  So far so good and I hope to stay that way. 

Oh, and wear your sunscreen!   

At what age did you start seeing a dermatologist? My GP advised me to start soon.

Glad to hear you caught things before they were a much bigger deal!

In reply to Powar :

I've been going yearly since I was 18.  I'm 38 now.  I am covered in moles and freckles, head to toe so my mom (a nurse) said I should go yearly.  I don't think there's a rule of thumb to start going.  Just go now.

My dermatologist said my kids will need to start going yearly in their late teens since I cursed them with my genetics.  

I have been doing annual inspections for years. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes. 

Cuz if you don't find it early........it gets bigger. This was basal cell carcinoma, not melanoma, but you don't need to go through this E36 M3 if your doctor finds it early.

One of my best friends and a serious autocrosser was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma 3 years ago.  After multiple types of chemo, radiation, skin grafts, and most recently an experimental clinical trial he isn't expected to make it more than a few more months, at best.  Get checked, wear big hats and long sleeves, use sunscreen even though it's greasy and nasty.

Great PSA as warm weather comes in!

I grew up with 5 brothers and a sister, Mom was a homemaker so cheap entertainment was Madeira Beach every weekend.  I got red & blistered, Mom would make tea, let it cool and dab my back with it, tannins eased the pain.  I healed just in time for a return trip, so on the dermatologist questionaire "Have you ever ..."

I go every 3-4 month to have things removed with liquid nitrogen.  It's systemic, what pops up are roots looking for more.  The white thing inside my lip will never go away.

Buy a good hat, use sunscreen.  Trust me.

I get a yearly checkup. I don't hide from the sun, but I sure respect skin cancer.

Last checkup (six weeks ago) the doctor spotted "something weird" on my back and took a nickle-sized area.

It came back "not cancer, but not normal either" so she took about a 1/2" x 3" strip that gave me 17 stiches.

It came back "not cancer, but not normal either" again. She said in 27 years I've never had to do this 3 times.

So, I got another strip of that cut out and 19 new stiches. Now I'm waiting for the results. 

I'm gonna be pissed and a bit scared if it comes back "not cancer, but not normal either" again.

I started getting checked out annually about 8 years ago. Growing up in Florida and sailing for so many years I have not been easy on my skin. Even though I was pretty good about sunscreen use, the effects compound. Last year I got to have a melanoma removed from my face. This was even less fun than it looks.

No gross pictures, but I've had a squamous cell and a basil cell carcinoma removed.   I get checked annually now.  It was semi-annually for a while.  

Thank you for posting this.

I've had two basal cell tumors removed from my face, locations very nearly identical to the photos above. One straight down the middle of my forehead, the other an absolute mirror image of John's.

I go every six months. I have anything removed and biopsied if my dermatologist says so much as "maybe we should."  I haven't had anything come back positive for a few years now.

I grew up in FL, grandparents had a place on Treasure Island, FL, where we were whenever school was out. Lots of fishing, sailing, surfing, then when I got older, added outdoors jobs (lawn service, then 12 years training horses). When I started on the track at age 19, my right side of my nose would peel every five days, whether I was in the sun or not. That went on for the next six months, without a single sunburn the entire time.

After I left the track and went to school, more fishing, more surfing, more outdoors work. Finally transitioned to small animal practice, so I work indoors. More recently swapped fishing for autocross. Now it's sunscreen every time, long pants and sleeves, big hat.

I have a redhead's complexion, although my beard hasn't been red for a long time. I'm pretty high risk.

When I talk to my clients about lumps and suspicious looking lesions on their pets, I tell them that everything should be checked, and that I have the scars to prove it.

My doc shaved off a "thing" from my scalp and the biopsy came back as "not melanoma, yet...".  So the doc prescribed a chemical peel for my temples, scalp, ears, etc..  A week of applying it,  and after peeling like I had a bad sunburn for about ten days, the skin seems to be a lot clearer and it seems to have gotten rid of most of the sun damage, and it's supposed to greatly reduce the chances of skin cancer.

I might add that dogs will sometimes eat tubes of the Efudex cream (fluorouracil). It's super toxic when ingested. Keep it out of reach.