PSA

The first picture is not my arm, but it looks pretty similar to a spot I used to have on mine. I didn't take a picture of my arm at that point, because I didn't think I'd need to. I didn't think I'd be making this post, documenting a small journey I never thought I'd take.  Like I said, that first picture is similar to a spot that appeared on my arm a while ago.  I knew I should have it checked, melanoma runs in the family, but I'd had a similar spot on my leg which a naturopath just froze off and was fine. Then our doctors moved. And we were planning to move soon, so I put it off, thinking I'd have easy access to campus doctors once we got here and I could pop in and have them look at it rather than going to the trouble of finding a doctor in Oak Harbor right before we moved for a spot that was probably nothing. 


I went to the doc within the first week or so of being here in Michigan.  Needed to renew my birth control prescription and figured while I'm at it, might as well have the spot looked at, possibly frozen off as well.  She looked at it, referred me to another doctor in the office who she said could lop it right off.  Next appointment, with new doctor.  He looks at it, and a similar spot on my leg, says they're both probably nothing but sliced them off and set them to pathology just to be sure.  A few days later I get a call that they need me to come in and go over my test results.  I was expecting a letter in the mail saying everything was fine, not a phone call saying we need to talk to you in person.  Jon came with, he told me the spot on my leg was fine, but the one on my arm was melanoma.  Lovely. Referred me to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where they have a specialized center for skin cancer.


Jon was in intensive classes, so I drove 2 1/2 hours to Ann Arbor to meet with the dermatologist.  The initial plan was that I would just have a head to toe check and come back later for a wider removal of the spot.  However, because the initial pathology report hadn't determined how deep it was, and there was a mitosis rate of 1 instead of 0, she decided to take a little more right then and there to see if we could get a better idea of how deep it was and whether further action was needed.


Few days later she calls back that it's deep enough to cross into the "medium risk" category, so that means not only do I need even more of my arm sliced open to get any stray cells, but they also need to check lymph nodes as a precaution. Super.

Drove back to Ann Arbor a few weeks later for a pre-op appointment.  Met with the surgeon, nuclear medicine, etc.

July 22nd , Jon was able to come with me this time.  First went to nuclear medicine where they injected me with blue radioactive dye (yikes!) to see which lymph nodes go to that spot in my arm.  That was fun. Then went to the East Medical campus for surgery. wait...wait....wait...more waiting... had the surgery, no problems, came out of the anasethia pretty quickly and headed home, looking like this:

 

This outer bandage on my arm and armpit area lasted for the first 48 hours.  Then I looked like this: 

 

I have a caterpillar on my arm.  Awesome.  They said the swelling and numbness may or may not go away.  If it goes away it may be days, or months. Super.   9 LONG days later, we finally get the call (in the middle of GenCon) and the results were NEGATIVE! (thanks for all the prayers!) Both procedures were fairly precautionary, but still, the mind begins to wander and come up with worst case scenarios, so even though I was kind of expecting the news, I did start crying when she told me over the phone :) 

2 1/2 weeks later, sutures started to get infected (one doc (surgeon) says I can go running/biking/etc. after a week.  Doc who saw the infection said "yeah...probably sweat is a good possibility". Who runs and doesn't sweat?! Why did the surgeon think I could go running a week later?? Oh well, got the antibiotics, and a few days later the sutures came out.  After wiggling them around, they bled a bit so he wrapped my arm back up, and after the bleeding stopped and I took the wrapping off, I'll I'm left with is a few steri strips (four of which have come off since this picture). 

I now will have a lovely scar to display for the rest of my life, which I'm relatively okay with (beats having cancer)!  The tough part is that this part of my arm is basically never supposed to see the sun again.  It's more sensitive now, and sunscreen doesn't protect against all kinds of UV rays.  That's one reason my doc was telling me we have such an epidemic of skin cancer.  People have promoted sunscreen so much, that now people put it on (maybe correctly, maybe not) and think they're safe, but really it can only do so much.    I'm going to start investing in some lightweight breathable UV protective clothing.  So consider yourselves warned people.  You know how they say if you have a really bad burn before you're 18 your risk doubles? Well, I may have had a fairly good burn, but I never blistered that I can remember (unlike my brother), and never went to a tanning bed (unlike my brother) and guess who got the melanoma.  I wasn't great about putting on sunscreen before, and look where it got me.  Now I get to put on SPF 30+ everyday (you can get sunburned through clouds. and through glass/windows)! And cover my arm everyday! And get bi-yearly skin checks for the next 2 years and yearly after that.  And my future kids' risk for getting melanoma has just risen.  Get yourselves checked people. Wear sunscreen.  Realize that sunscreen helps but doesn't fully protect.  I rest my case.