This is Brave

This is Brave: We Can Be Brave Together

Melanoma, what an ugly word. The first time I heard it, I was six.  I could barely say it. I wish the story ended there, but it was only the beginning.  Graham, my brother, was diagnosed in 2013 with stage III melanoma on his left arm.  When I was growing up I knew Graham was different because he had melanoma, but I never knew that he could die.

Usually when bad things happen in families, emotions take over. The emotion we all wanted to have was bravery but that is hard to do when you’re scared. But we were scared together, and that gave us strength.

I watched Graham go through lots of surgeries, and painful tests, and it was hard to think about what might happen if his melanoma came back. We had to be brave together. As I got older, I learned more about melanoma, and that this type of skin cancer can be deadly.  Graham’s cancer did not come from a bad sunburn or being out in the sun too much, his was genetic, but most are not like Graham’s.

Once, in 5th grade, I had to write a story about my hero, I picked Graham.  I did a quick google search about pediatric melanoma, and Graham’s story was the first thing that came up.  I remember sitting in the library crying.  It was at that very moment that I realized exactly what this all meant.  I took a big breath and thought to myself, I have to be brave for Graham.  I can’t do much to change his situation or find a cure, but I can be brave.

Advocacy is one way I can do something to try to help. I try to tell people to wear sunscreen and stop tanning.  I am in middle school, so it is hard to get people to listen but if someone in their family had melanoma they would understand the risk. I tell people about skin checks and changing moles. We raise money for research, we go to Washington DC to ask Congress for research funding, we teach sun safety and we share stories. The more I can share, the more I hope I will prevent someone from going through what he has. Graham is not only my brother, he is my friend. I cannot imagine life without him. I wish science would find a cure. Until that happens, I will continue to brave, because sometimes that is all you can do.

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This is Brave

This is Brave: Five Years Later, I am Stronger

For those of you who don’t know my story, my name is Karolina Jasko. I was diagnosed with acral melanoma in 2016 a few days before my eighteenth birthday. I was a senior in high school dealing with a melanoma diagnosis in the midst of getting ready for college and trying to get excited for senior prom and graduation. It was a scary thing!

My mom had melanoma twice, so I was familiar with the disease, but never in a million years did I think it could happen to me. Especially at such a young age. Luckily, I had a team of phenomenal doctors and a wonderful support system that helped me get through.

Read Karolina’s original story here.

Five years later, melanoma is still one of the deadliest cancers in the world. Five years later, being diagnosed with melanoma still impacts me every day. Five years later, I am stronger…

When I was first diagnosed with melanoma, my mental health fell apart a little bit. I took on a lot of the heavy, emotional feelings that my family and friends were sharing. I didn’t want them to see that I was upset and scared too. I wanted to be strong for my family and show them that everything would be okay. Everything did end up being okay; but holding in that fear during that time was hard.

An experience like this changes you. It changes your family. It changes your support system. You view things differently, you take precautions that maybe you normally wouldn’t have, and you react differently to certain things people say. You also learn to appreciate things more. When I say I’m stronger, I wholeheartedly mean that. Through my diagnosis and treatment, I learned to be stronger for my family, and stronger for me.

For all of this, I am so THANKFUL.

As Miss Illinois USA, I was able to use my title to talk through my experience. I could share the fear I felt, and the shame and insecurities I carried. But most importantly, I was able to help spread awareness and the importance of prevention.

Although I no longer hold the title, I continue to spread awareness and talk about prevention. I’m currently a full-time graduate student at Northwestern University, but I still find time to support the Melanoma Research Foundation and other organizations whenever I get the chance. Sharing our stories and supporting each other matters! Five years later, I continue to get skin checks and body scans with my wonderful dermatologist. I wear sunscreen and avoid UV Rays. Five years later I am stronger and I’m here to keep sharing my story and making sure others stay sun safe.

#GetNaked video: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_yLBVdhDfM/

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This is Brave

This is Brave: Bravely Raising Awareness Through a Pandemic

Hello, my name is Bethany Gambardella-Greenway. I was diagnosed with stage 3a melanoma in august of 2016. I have been supporting “This is Brave” since it first began.

In 2018, I introduced everyone to my journey. It was a big leap forward for me in terms of sharing my story and helping others: https://blog.coolibar.com/bethany-greenway.  

In 2019, I worked through the physical and emotional impact of my diagnosis and learned what I needed to do to stay strong and present for my daughters.

In 2020, I was invited to help introduce you to my amazing friend Patrick Guddal: https://blog.coolibar.com/this-is-brave-warrior-to-warrior/.

This year, in 2021, when Coolibar invited me to write again, I was somewhat stymied. I haven’t done anything! In the past year, I haven’t done any speaking, volunteering, or public fundraising. The activist part of my life was put on pause along with normal life thanks to the pandemic. 

Like a lot of others, the past year was extra challenging. In order to feel some level of normalcy and feel like I was making a difference, I started making masks for friends, family and a local business. All the time I would have spent the year before helping fundraise for melanoma research, I spent making masks.

Still, as an activist, I felt somewhat lost and without purpose. I know I wasn’t alone in this. I kept blogging and talking about my own skin cancer journey, with the added variable that COVID-19 brought into the mix. I put off my six-month skin check and seeing my oncologist. It was a very scary time for me and other cancer survivors.

Before the pandemic, my melanoma treatment has been immunotherapy, Yervoy, which really did a number on my immune system. It’s been more than a year since my last infusion and still when I get a cold or virus, I’m sick for double the time a normal person would be sick for. My immune system basically goes bonkers.

Knowing what we knew about COVID in the beginning, I was so fearful of what could happen if I got it. I am a single mother of two girls, Luciana (9) and Arabella (6). I was beside myself with fear. I’ve now gotten my vaccine; the fear has become less but it’s still present. I fear for my friends and family who haven’t gotten their shots yet, and I wonder what it will be like once we truly find our new normal as a society. Raising awareness in 2021 is definitely going to be different than in years past. At this point who knows what’s going to happen. However, what I am hopeful for is people coming together for the greater good and all those things everyone had to put off during 2020 finally come to fruition.

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Live Wisely

Mom Bloggers Educating Families About Sun Safety

Kelli Gillespie Richardson and I met when working in and around the media world. As our careers grew, so did our families.  Picture two career women literally wearing their babies to press junkets and TV stations, and frantically changing diapers before jumping on air. It sounds crazy, but we made it work!  Our friends suggested we share our crazy experiences with others so we took their advice and created Family Entourage—a place to celebrate and support growing families. We continue to juggle our careers, families and our growing blog network from sunny San Diego, which brings us to our need for sun protection…

Living in San Diego, we are outside year-round. We always prepare for sun exposure when we’re at the pool or beach, but the reality is that we are exposed as soon as we step outside the house. The easy solution…sunscreen! But picture this…every time you step out of your front door the sun is blazing and you need to cover your toddler or young kiddo in sunscreen. Whether you’re at the San Diego Zoo or La Jolla Beach, we have to chase down our kiddos every 1-2 hours and slather them down. This resulted in a lot of stress, sunscreen in the eyes, sand and mud sticking to our kiddos, sometimes for days. We needed a better solution for our kids, our readers and our sanity!

Kelli and I were first introduced to Coolibar when researching a TV segment on Pool Party Ideas. The amount of information available on water safety and teaching kids to swim was huge. But what we also discovered in our research was that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. We were blown away! This revelation really opened our eyes to the need for sun protection, and how best to use/wear it.

After that initial Pool Party Ideas segment where we tried out Coolibar, our families have been wearing it everywhere. We also make sure we’re ‘modeling’ it during any and all TV segments where we can recommend sun-protective clothing. It’s our way of using our voice to help local parents tackle sun safety. If our blog helps keep families sun-safe and cancer-free, we’ll keep spreading the word. Education and awareness is everything and we don’t want any families to be a part of the ‘1 in 5’ statistic.

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Together We Will

Dr. Patel: The Power of Observation

As physicians we have a unique ability to provide care, comfort and our expertise to patients on an individual basis. However, being able to partner with organizations dedicated to a particular disease or diseases is a way to make an impact for a larger group of people beyond our immediate patient population. It’s an important way to make sure our care extends as far as we can stretch it.

Since my days in high school, volunteering gave me an important understanding of the impact a medical provider can have beyond the classroom and exam room. Early on I got involved in a volunteer program at a brain tumor center. The program paired pediatric patients with medical students who acted as big brothers or sisters to observe how they were handling their care. Eventually, we were able to purchase disposable cameras that the patients used to document their emotions, thoughts, and lives outside the clinic and hospital as they underwent treatment. The scrapbooks acted as a form of therapeutic expression for them and allow others to observe what these pediatric patients were experiencing. That experience and value it added to patient care and education really taught me the importance of getting involved in volunteer programs.

Something I’ve carried with me from that opportunity is the power of observation. By pairing with these children and reviewing their scrapbooks, we were able to observe their experience, learn from it, and make more informed medical decisions. As I left medical school and started my career as a Dermatologist, the importance of observation became very apparent.

When detecting and treating skin cancer, it starts with what we see or observe. But dermatologists can only observe what is near them. We need help from friends, family members, and other individuals in observing and identifying potential trouble spots.

A great example of this is hair stylists. Just in the past few years, two separate hair stylists observed ‘funny moles’ on their clients. After sending those clients to our clinic we diagnosed and treated melanoma. For these patients, the early detection of their “funny moles” led to a simple removal with a complete recovery. But, had those stylists not observed their scalps and sent them our way, their diagnosis could have progressed into something more dangerous. Not all hairstylists are aware of the role they can play in early detection. It’s thanks – in part – to the awareness built by foundations like the Polka Dot Mama. Their community outreach helps educate more people about how to detect skin cancer and understand warning signs. 

When I first met Tracy Callahan (founder of Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation), what caught my attention was her energy. She has always been very passionate about getting the word out about melanoma prevention and early detection. For medical professionals like myself, she’s able to raise funding for research, and create incredible events where we can get out of our clinic and observe and screen thousands of new patients.  

Our practice – North Carolina Dermatology Associates – continues to support Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation at free monthly melanoma screenings. We also joined other medical providers in the area to support the world’s largest skin cancer screening, which broke the Guinness Book of World Records in 2019. Through these events, we have been able to detect melanoma earlier and improve patient outcomes. It’s all about connecting with people outside of our clinic to check their skin and teach them to observe and monitor any changes.

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Skin Diaries

Melanoma Warrior: “Avoid Tanning Beds!”

Growing up, I loved to be in the sun and rarely wore sunscreen. And I definitely didn’t know anything about sun-protective clothing – what was that? Then, like many young women idealizing tan skin, from the age of 16-24, I definitely visited the tanning booth way too often. I’m now 36 years old and I fully regret all of those decisions. 

My warrior story started pretty recently – in August 2019.  I had never been to a dermatologist for a full body skin check. My skin looked fine to me. I didn’t have any abnormal growing moles so, as far as I could tell, I was good to go.

I finally went to the dermatologist for two reasons 1. we had put a pool in our backyard and I was out in the sun even more and 2. I had a friend start working with a dermatologist who advised me to go. I am so thankful I went. The dermatologist walked in the exam room, we talked about my medical history and she asked if I had any concerning spots, which I did not. She checked me over, then asked me how long I had had a little brown spot on my leg near my knee. It was new, but it wasn’t raised or shaped abnormally. I had gotten lots of new spots on my body over the years, so I wasn’t alarmed.

After doing the full-body exam, she decided to take off the spot on my leg. Then the following Monday I received a call from the dermatologist. I had always assumed I would never get skin cancer. But here I was, on the phone listening to someone tell me I had Stage 1A melanoma. I had to ask her, “wait, is that cancer?”. It was a life-changing conversation that I never saw coming. 

Thankfully, I did not need chemotherapy or radiation. My diagnosis only required a wide local excision, however, recovery from that procedure wasn’t so quick and easy. Soon after surgery, my incision opened up after an accidental kick to the knee from my toddler. It took 3.5 long, painful months to heal.       

The next summer, in 2020, I knew so much more about sun safety and I was ready to be outdoors. I got serious about wearing sunscreen, started wearing UPF 50+ sun protective clothing and wide-brimmed hats. There was no way I was going to miss out on pool time with my family. One of the blessings of getting melanoma is that I now know enough to protect everyone around me. If you’re in our pool, you’re sun-safe.

After years of avoiding sunscreen, going to tanning beds, and assuming I was safe, I now go to the dermatologist every 3-5 months for skin checks. Thankfully, I haven’t had another diagnosis since.

I really hope that people young and old will learn from my mistakes. Especially young women who are going to tanning beds. Please care for your health and your skin by wearing sunscreen on exposed skin every day and cover up with UPF 50+ clothing and wide-brimmed hats when you’re out for a long period of time. Also, AVOID TANNING BEDS! Trust me, you’re beautiful as you are and will be grateful you skipped the salon later in life. And if you haven’t gone yet, or are hesitating, please just go to the dermatologist. Nobody is immune.

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Skin Diaries

A Melanoma Warrior’s Advice: Always Make Time to Take Care of Your Health

I found my melanoma through self-checks, but not the way you’d think. For a long time, I would notice a brown spot on my lower right leg every time I shaved my legs. Unless I was actually focusing on my leg, I never noticed it and it didn’t bother me, so it wasn’t a big deal.

I never would have dreamt that the spot was Melanoma. But I knew it wasn’t totally normal, so I had made appointments to get it removed. But, because everything else in my life was more important, I kept canceling them. Sound familiar to anyone?

I finally stopped canceling in 2007. It was January and I had been having night sweats and felt very fatigued. It inspired me to finally keep my appointment and the mole was finally removed. I moved on and never gave it another thought – until a few days later.

I was at work rushing to a meeting when I realized I’d forgotten a file I needed at my desk. I ran back to my office where my phone was ringing. It was an unknown number. I decided to answer it in the off chance they were canceling my meeting. As luck would have it, it was my Doctor telling me to come into her office. I realized this was probably bad news, but I still found myself telling her that I couldn’t just drop everything and leave work. Reluctantly, she told me I had melanoma and she wasn’t sure what stage (or how bad) it was. She was sending me to a surgeon, a dermatologist and an oncologist. At this point, I really hoped that the meeting was canceled.  

The surgeon I went to recommended a sentinel node biopsy to find out what stage my melanoma was. I had the biopsy on February 2nd, my 50th birthday. Ironically, a mole was found in one of my groin nodes, but it was completely benign. I was Stage One and I felt blessed. I made it through that scare and moved on to routine skin checks that I DIDN’T miss or reschedule.

Then, during a routine scan in 2011 my dermatologist found another suspicious spot. More melanoma. Same cell type. Stage One but I was told there were free floating cells – a nest of cells that were not condensed enough to be a big concern – and my immune system should take care of them. My dermatologist advised me to watch for any hard lumps behind my knee or in my groin and report them right away. I also had to get checked every three months.

One of the biggest things I took away was advice from my oncologist. They told me that our bodies let us know when something is wrong, much more than we realize. We just need to learn to pay attention. In my case, my night sweats were telling me something and I needed to pay attention.

My diagnosis has changed the way I view life. I do become somewhat afraid when I have a strange new symptom or spot, but I try not to let it consume me. I feel so very fortunate. With the use of sunscreen, shade, and sun-protective clothing I no longer hide from the sun. I am an extremely active person, so being able to get outside to run, walk, hike, paddleboard, golf or garden, is really important to me. I couldn’t imagine not being able to do those things or fearing for my health. Since my diagnosis, I always have SPF sunscreen and UPF clothing on. I even went to sunny Jamaica and added a great big sun hat to my wardrobe to stay safe.

My advice to you: Never put off taking care of yourself. Early detection saves lives, especially with melanoma. The earlier you find the cancer the better your result will be. So check your skin, go to the dermatologist, and get outside and be sun safe!

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Skin Diaries

A Mother’s Melanoma Wake-Up Call Comes from a Popular TV Series

For as long as I can remember, my mom has checked my skin for new or changed spots, even into adulthood she still will look at my arms or neck and check for changes. She found my very first ‘spot’ in a dressing room while I was trying on new school clothes for my 3rd grade year. It was a dark black mole on my shoulder that had suddenly popped up overnight it seemed. The doctor removed it months later. Thankfully, it was only an atypical mole with no sign of cancer.

In 2003, when my mother mentioned that she did not like a mole I had on my jaw/neck area, I brushed it off with, “it’s fine, mom. No, mom, it hasn’t changed”. At the time, I was a 31-year-old mother with an 18-month-old toddler and an elementary school-aged son. My husband was in the military and we had just moved to a new town, so I did not have time to go to the doctor and investigate a mole that was probably nothing.

Then, I found the photograph that changed everything. I was looking through a box of old photos and came across an image of me laughing with my head cocked back to the side. It wasn’t a great photo but for some reason it caught my attention. I looked at the side of my face and neck. There was no mole. I flipped the photo over and looked for the date. It taken was about 2 years prior. It seemed strange that the mole had grown so large in such a short amount of time. Perhaps my mom was right to be concerned.

I made an appointment with my doctor who sent me to a dermatologist to have it removed. I remember when he called to give me the results. I thought it was odd that he was calling me. No one ever called with results. Everything was always fine. He used the word melanoma and began talking about a referral to a MOHS office for another surgery. I recall telling my parents and my husband that it was no big deal. I had my second surgery and clean margins, then I’d have skin checks every 3 months for a year, followed by every 6 months for a year. I could do that. No big deal. It’s fine. Everything is fine.

I really believed that. I really thought it was all fine. And then—I saw the Grey’s Anatomy episode about Izzy being diagnosed with melanoma and a metastasis. Wait…this can kill me? An older woman at my church had a spot on her foot that wasn’t healing. She had surgery, it was melanoma that had metastasized and she died six months later. My dad was diagnosed with melanoma a year after me and had to have a lymph node removed. I was learning that everything was definitely NOT fine. This was and is a big deal.

This realization absolutely changed things for me. Like my mother, my drive to protect my children from skin cancer became much more important. We already knew that sunscreen was an important part of going outside, but now it was vital. I also started being aware of what time of day we should avoid being outside. We lived near the beach, so I became an early morning or evening beachgoer and always used an umbrella. When watching my kids play sports, I found shade or made my own. As my children grew, they knew that a sunburn was something they had to avoid. I expected them to take sun safety seriously. After all, their grandpa and their mom both had melanoma.

Most recently I’ve learned a lot more about sun-protective clothing through Polka Dot Mama and Coolibar. Anything I can add to my family’s routine to help keep them safe really helps me feel like they’re safe out in the sun.

What I want everyone else to learn from my story is to take it seriously! Never think that skin cancer is ‘no big deal’. Be diligent about your skin and listen to your friends, family, or even a stranger in the coffee line if they think something doesn’t look right. In my case my mother was always looking out for me and she hounded my dad about the mole on his arm which ended up being melanoma. Her skin checks likely saved our lives.

My other advice is to take care of yourself. I was a busy mom and I made the excuse that I didn’t have time to take care of myself. This is SO common in mothers. But please remember that you are always worth the care you give yourself—especially when it comes to your health. Early detection really can save your life when it comes to melanoma. Since my initial diagnosis, I have met so many other melanoma survivors. The one survivor that has inspired me the most is my friend, Tracy Callahan, of the Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation. Her story is so different from mine, yet we have so much in common. She has taught me more about melanoma than anyone—how to live a full life with the diagnosis and how to make a difference in the world because of it. Education and information are key components to helping people recognize the need for sun safety and how to take care of their skin. Tracy does an amazing job both educating and providing free skin screenings. She is a living embodiment of taking a challenging personal journey and using it to positively impact the lives of others.

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Skin Diaries

College Basketball Coach Opens Up About Off-Court Battles

Joanne P. McCallie is known by most for the 28 years she spent as a head woman’s college basketball coach. In that time, she celebrated 646 wins, 22 seasons with over 20 wins, 21 NCAA Tournament appearances, and eight conference championships. Most recently, she was the head coach at Duke University and helped the Blue Devils to a 330-107 overall record and earned ACC Coach of the Year in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

While her achievements as ‘Coach P’ will live on the walls of Universities for decades to come, her legacy will also be that of a Melanoma Warrior. She was first diagnosed with Melanoma in 2007 when a spot was removed from her forehead. With this diagnosis she began to further understand and respect the need for a sun-safe lifestyle and started advocating for this amongst her friends, family, colleagues, and her athletes.

Then in 2016 she had a second, more serious diagnosis which resulted in 26 surgical stitches on her back where doctors had removed malignant cells with melanoma. That same year more cells were removed from the right side of her neck. As her early scars had finally started to fade, new ones emerged.

Like many people who share their stories in the hopes of saving lives, Joanne crossed paths with numerous other warriors over the years. Including her athletes, some of whom had experienced skin cancer in their families, and even lost immediate family. As a coach, she had always understood the power and importance of a player’s ‘mental game’. But the mental health of patients, survivors, family was an entirely different mental battle.

She recently released her latest book “Secret Warrior: A Coach and Fighter On and Off the Court”. It’s a memoir of the mental health journey she’s taken through all parts of her life. From the realities and challenges of the sports world, to navigating her personal health and battles with cancer and bipolar disorder. Her recurring theme is this:

FAITH OVER FEAR

Her aim with this book is to reduce the stigma associated with impaired mental health and encourage those suffering from mental health issues to reach out for help. Mental health is a vital part of everyone’s success, but it’s not something that is easy to navigate and manage along. In the book, she offers real direction, experiences and personal stories to teach and reassure those working through the dynamics of their mental and physical health.

“The only way we can be our best selves is to prioritize the health and strength of our minds,” says Joanne.

Joanne’s faith and authenticity have led to many meaningful connections along her journey. One of the most impactful is her friendship with Tracy Callahan of Polka Dot Mama Melanoma Foundation. Together they created Melanoma Awareness Games with Duke University as a way to increase awareness and conduct as many free skin cancer screenings as possible. Protection and early detection make all the difference, and Coach P and Tracy Callahan continue to work together to promote sun-safe habits and get people to the dermatologist! Most recently she volunteered her time for a Coolibar Warrior Photoshoot. All proceeds went to the Polka Dot Mama Foundation!

As she moves away from her coaching career Joanne plans to devote more time to mental health awareness, through her book and directly. As someone who dedicates a lot of their energy to helping and supporting others, we’re grateful for all she does.

To purchase Joanne’s book please visit: https://coachp.org/.

To help her support Polka Dot Mama Foundation, please visit: https://polkadotmama.org/

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Skin Diaries

Adjusting to Life After a Skin Cancer Diagnosis

Part of me wasn’t surprised when the biopsy results came back positive. Of the three bumps I felt on my scalp and had checked, one was squamous cell carcinoma. When I got the diagnosis, I thought about all the things I loved to do outside in the sun. I loved to spend long weekends hiking in New York’s Hudson Valley. I went jogging and cycling multiple times a week, and I spent summers at the beach. My most memorable travels were always outdoor adventures, like hiking the Path of the Gods in Amalfi, Italy, the Grand Canyon, and the Torres del Paine in Patagonia. I even had an outdoor wedding!

I had always thought I was pretty good about applying sunblock (usually SPF 30) to protect my skin. What I realize now is that I have been completely ignoring my scalp. It makes me angry thinking about it. It all makes sense now. My hair has always been cut short—and it’s not particularly thick—which leaves my crown completely vulnerable to sun damage.

I’m not sure I consider myself to be a “Skin Cancer Warrior” per se, but I’ll admit to wanting to ‘attack’ this problem head-on.  The good news in my diagnosis was that my cancer was considered ‘In situ’, meaning we caught it early enough. Regardless, I didn’t want to waste any time so I quickly scheduled my MOHS surgery with Dr. Vinelli in Morristown, NJ for June 9th, 2020 one month after the biopsy results.

The first thing I remember about that day was my conversation with the doctor. He told me that I had great skin for my age (50 at the time), but my scalp looked like “the skin of a 75-year-old”.  Food for thought…

I sat and made small talk with the surgery staff as they clipped the hair off my crown. Then a large section of my scalp was shaved with a straight razor. I nervously joked about looking like a monk, and not leaving the house until my hair grew back. Then a sheath was draped over the sides of my head and face.

The surgery was done under local anesthetic, but I could hear snipping, scraping, and feel the dabbing of gauze and tugging of the skin while it was being sewn closed. I wondered what the site would look like when the surgery was done and thought about all the types of hats I would buy to cover the scar. The more tugging I felt, the tighter the skin on my head and face felt. It was a strange sensation…Was I inadvertently getting a facelift? 

Then it was over. I was prescribed pain killers and an antibiotic cream and was told to remove the bandage the next morning. Additionally, I couldn’t exercise for at least two weeks and needed to avoid all strenuous activity. Hmm. 

The next morning, my husband helped me remove the bandage and the look on his face said it all. We both had underestimated the amount of damage I had, and size of the incision needed to get it all.   

Over the following months and with 2020 being what it was, I continued working from home while I healed. I took Zoom meetings and would carefully position the camera to be sure my coworkers couldn’t see the scar.

Eventually, I let my head tilt just enough and my boss saw the scar (and ‘monk cut’) and asked me what happened. As it turned out, he also had MOHS surgery on the bridge of his nose. We compared notes and lamented, saying things like, “If we could only go back and do things differently”. 

We talked about how we were dealing with our diagnosis. He’d started staying out of the sun entirely while I was hiding under hats. He doesn’t go to the beach anymore and I’ve started sitting under umbrellas and wearing sun shirts. We each have different approaches to how we’re handling our brush with skin cancer. Both of us are fully aware that we’re even more susceptible to more damage.  I think the most important thing is that we have both changed our habits and are in a position to help others.

As ‘skin cancer warriors’ we can tell people what happened. Not to scare them—or gross them out. But we get to share our stories with one another, and with everyone around us because this experience is entirely preventable. If we can teach people to protect their scalp, shield their faces, wear sunblock and sun-protective clothing, fewer and fewer people will experience this cancer. For that I’m grateful.

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