Melanoma Awareness!

May is Melanoma Awareness Month. 

I am one of those people that love the sun.  And even though I knew it was not good for me - I would also use a tanning bed about a month or so each winter because it made me feel better and I liked being tan.  I would justify this by telling myself it was only for one month out of the year . . . and of course denial (yes, I am aware of skin cancer - but that won't happen to me.)   Well . . . I wasn't really aware at all . . . and yes, it did happen to me.

I just noticed that the moles on my stomach remind me of the big dipper . . . and I have a slight sunburn going on in this picture (from the looks of it - I am pretty sure I was tanning in a tanning bed at this time - shame on me), anyway - among those moles there is a pink spot.  I had been talking about seeing a dermatologist - but never made the appointment.  My husband kept at me to make the appointment and for whatever reason - I listened to him.  I now have a four inch scar where that pink spot used to be - and another scar under my left arm where the surgeon removed lymph nodes.  I WAS LUCKY!!!  The thickness of the melanoma was enough for my doctor to be concerned - yet it had not spread into my lymph nodes.  Did I mention? . . . I WAS LUCKY!!!

I think the thing that scared me the most was that my melanoma did not look like what I thought it would.  It was not a mole that had changed.  In fact I never had this spot until after tanning in a tanning bed a couple of years ago.  I am convinced that the tanning bed played into me having malignant melanoma.  I get so mad when I tell other people about this (who tan in tanning beds) - and they don't take it serious.  They continue to go to the tanning salon - thinking it won't happen to them.  These same people would not smoke cigarettes because they cause lung cancer - or don't microwave their food in plastic because they have heard it can cause cancer.  Really????

I could go on with details and statistics . . . but will post these links

http://www.mela-know-more.org/

http://www.aimatmelanoma.org/en/index.html

I urge anyone and everyone to find out what they can about melanoma and spread the word.  After being diagnosed with melanoma - I of course got on the Internet to get information.  I also found personal blogs of people who were fighting a battle with melanoma.  I began following some of these blogs - and the people and their famlies - and I can remember when it really hit me . . . the seriousness of this disease . .  . I would go to a blog - and discover that the battle was lost - a person had died.