Back in June I posted to the 16 year old me. My dad has malignant melanoma diagnosed 25 years ago and is watched pretty closely. I'm conscious of it but will admit to not being as careful as I need to be.
And then came the reality check, and sadly it's affected the life of a beautiful young lady! If you've been reading here for a long time, you've seen "googsmom" comment quite frequently. She is my longtime internet friend Jennifer. Several weeks ago her 17 year old daughter Mary was diagnosed with adult melanoma. This is not just "skin cancer" where you remove a little spot and get on with life. This is more. Like last week as part of the staging process she had part of her foot removed and has lymph nodes in her groin removed. Right now she is considered stage 1b, but if the lymph nodes come back positive that puts her in Stage III. There are only 4 stages folks.
Please go read Jennifer's blog, add Mary and the rest of their family to your prayer list and if you have teenagers, or you yourself are a sun worshiper, STOP NOW! I promise to keep sunscreen in the saddlebag of my bike from now on AND USE IT!
3 comments:
Oh, that is HORRIBLE!! I will be sure to check out her blog. Melanoma is so very, very scary.
Oh Leah, Thx for spreading the word. Melanoma is nothing to mess with. Please use your sunscrean folks :)
Thank you for posting this. My dad has had melanoma twice but his was the kind where they took off a little skin and he's gone on with life. He'll be 87 this fall.
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