Lee Jordan .org.uk

The ugliness of this disease grabs your attention on the BBC News health page. Be Mole Aware, check your moles for Asymmetry Border Color Diameter and Elevation, a combination of those things means you should get hooked up with a specialist. A GP who waivers your concern should be frowned upon … together we can save lives by getting moles taken out before they go “skin deep”.

Advanced Melanoma is awful, time makes the difference, you make the difference

“Dr Julie Sharp, senior cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “If scientists can target treatments to block the Slug gene, they might be able to prevent cancer spread and improve survival from this disease in the future,” she said.” Source

“Mice injected with breast or connective tissue cancer cells developed tumours - but these did not spread, but those injected with melanoma cells immediately developed invasive tumours throughout their body.”

Ah man this whole thing sucks big time, only now are details readily becoming availible, our understanding is shifting daily. A typical headline on this day on this topic : “Even redheads who avoid sun may be vulnerable to skin cancer”. Not only is is hard enough being hit by it, but it’s twice as hard when imagined it might not have been avoidable and not so obvious. I was one of the sensible ones, fully rejecting any blame aportioned to myself, a life smothered in sunscreen, fate all along, welcome to my sense of irony.

“Both UVA and UVB light caused a photochemical reaction with the redheads’ pigment, called pheo-melanin … People with red hair may get cancer from over-exposure to the sun even if they do not burn, according to new research in the United States” Source

I can’t help it, but I still look on skin cancer warnings as being falsely advertised, if we are ever to have any chance of reducing the seriousness of Malignant Melanoma we have to take the issue much much more seriously and move away from beaches, holidays and tans.

Pleased to report that at my last Melanoma checkup everything seemed fine, no lumps or bumps, no moles looking out of character. I’m getting used to the strip search every 3 months, it could show up anywhere so there’s nothing to hide.

So I continue with my self checks, feeling the lymph nodes under my right arm pit and the left side of my groin. Living with NED (No Evidence of Disease) is kinda tough, because I know the cancer is there, yet I can’t feel, touch, taste or otherwise know of its precence and that’s the worst part about it. Knowing that I have one of the most agressive types of cancer isn’t the killer, it’s the not knowing what cancer cells are doing in there, where they are or which places they have marked to sight see.

The diagnosis hangs over me like a thunder cloud :
Stage IIc | Breslow 6mm | Nodular | 30% survival over 10 years

If ever we needed a reason to stem the rising incidence of Melanoma skin cancers (of which there are many deadly forms), this saddly is a reminder of why it’s such a worrisome cancer, why it’s such a problem and why we should take skin cancer more seriouly than we currently do.

While the experts argue and continue to give mixed messages on this issue, can I just point out that while 10 minutes a day of sunshine is recomended and is very good for skin, it is short bursts of sunshine at midday that cause a deadly form of Skin cancer.

Had a good chat yesterday with a specialist in Senintel Lymph Node Bioposy at Wordsley hospital. Overall what I was told is good news, because I half expected to be denied this operation. If I go through with what I’m about to blurt out, it’s a gamble that I might not need to be taking right now, but it will give a clearer picture one way or the other, the whole thing is very controversial. “Yes the cancer really has gone”, or “no actually it’s still lingering about the place like the smell of a smoker”. Life is about risk management, to me going through with this Delayed Sentinel Node Biopsy is good risk management and makes sense, meh no big deal right?

Been a long time since I wrote here about the progress of my Melanoma. Since then I have been lifted out of uncertainty. I had a further operation for a biopsy on 2 moles and I’m being booked in to see specialists. Great news from the scans a small summary follows:

• CT scans were clear
• Imuune system response is great
• No enlarged nodes
• It could have been worse, there’s a chance it might get worse
• Green Tea is horrid, but then not everything that is good is nice

I haven’t thought about the what the scans might show. The future is full of unknowns, even without cancer …. soooooo I have decided that for the next 2 weeks (until the apointment) I’m not gonna think about it as much and I’m gonna ready my life so I’m ok (in the worst case) to drop everything … again.

A lot of people know someone who has been affected by Malignant Melanoma, yet not many people openly talk about it or know how to spot it and even less is covered by media and public information messages. Melanoma is a scary form of skin cancer that is alarmingly on the increase particually amoung young people and unlike other forms of skin cancer if left long enough it kills because it is very invasive within the body. Unfortunatly skin cancer has an image of being highly treatable and curable, hopefully through my expereinces and this blog you’ll see that Melanoma is in fact a complex illness indeed.