Pale Girl SpeaksCourtney's Story
My melanoma journey began when I was 32 years old. I am a stay-at-home mom of two young girls, ages 3 years and 5 years. I have been happily married for almost 9 years now. I was always out playing in the sun as a child and in high school being "tan" was the thing to be, so when my friends would use an indoor tanning bed, I could not afford it, so I would bake in the sun throughout the summers completely slathered in baby oil. I loved the sun and being tan. Shortly after high school, I attended college and began to use indoor tanning beds. I would sometimes go a few times a week. My older sister always remarked that I would look like an old, wrinkled saddle-bag when I got older, but I just laughed it off and swore "tanned fat was prettier than white fat!"
So many years later, married with a young daughter, I was laying out at my parent's pool when my mom made a comment about a mole I had by my right hip. She told me I needed to get it checked out by a dermatologist and I promised I would, but as we all know, things get pushed aside. A few more years later and after I had another daughter, my mom reminded me, at the pool again, that I needed to get my mole checked out because it was bigger than all the other moles I had. You see, I have dark eyes and dark hair and medium skin tone so I just assumed since I already had a ton of freckles and moles, this one would be no different. Finally, after months of my mom prodding, I made the appointment with my dermatologist. It took a few months before I could even get in. I originally went in for acne I was experiencing as an adult, and upon the dermatologist asking me if I had anything else they would be interested in looking at, I asked them to look at my questionable mole. The doctor decided to go ahead and biopsy the entire mole which left me with three stitches. I left the office and called them 5 days later, I might add, while sitting in the sun outside my house watching my girls play in the yard. They told me that they would need me to come in the the office at my earliest convenience to get my results. I knew this could not have been good news. At the time, my husband was out of town for his business, so my mom went with me to my appointment to help me with any news they gave me. I still didn't think it would be a big deal. The very next day, my mom and I got the news that the mole was confirmed melanoma and I needed to make an appointment to get chest x-rays and blood work done, along with an appointment with an oncologist. Even upon doing all this and talking with the doctor, I had no idea how bad this kind of cancer could be. I just figured it was skin cancer and they cut it off. Thankfully, my results from my blood work and chest x-rays came out clean, but I did have to go back to my dermatologist to have a minor surgery done and remove so much skin all around and deep into my leg where the mole was to make sure the melanoma had not spread any further. I went to a plastic surgeon upon leaving the dermatologist to have that hole closed up, leaving me with 20 stitches and incredible bruising along my right leg.
So far since all of this has happened, I have had clean body checks with my dermatologist, but I cannot help but be terrified of each one of my moles or any cough or headache I get. I have read so many stories of others that had melanoma return and with a vengeance, it seems. At this point, I just take one day at a time, wear my sunblock along with slathering my kids, and thank the Lord above for keeping me here this long. I pray nobody else with ever have to go through getting melanoma and love preaching about sun protection along with staying out of tanning beds.
Thank you for listening!