Stage 1A Melanoma- A Worried Rant

One thing that helped me a lot on this forum was honing in on some of the people here who seem to be highly informed and are in similar situations. I quickly found from reading lots of passages that there’s a member here who posts under the name “janner” who has been active on this forum for many years and she seems to know a great deal about atypical nevus syndrome, and has lived with early staged melanomas for a few decades now. You can go to member’s profile and search for posts that they have commented on over the years. Reading these passages and leaning on their lived experiences has helped me a great deal process the grief and despair that comes with the shock of this diagnosis. There’s a ton of wisdom on this forum, and it’s been around for years and years, and the archives are relatively easy to use.

As far as wearing shorts, outside activities, and where to live, those are all topics that are legit and deserve lots of contemplation. From what I’ve read, I think it’s pretty normal for people at first to experience a heavy dose of anxiety (I’m in that boat as well), which feels like paralysis. But, as you will come to see on this forum and via other forums, many people living with melanoma maintain highly active lives outside and in. Some people opt to be covered head to toe with sun protecting fabrics when the sun is up. Others continue to wear the clothing they prefer to wear and rely on frequent applications of good sunscreen throughout the day (SPF 30 and higher), and face the daylight with confidence. I’m finding myself some somewhere in between at the moment: I prefer to wear long sleeves and pants on the weekends while I’m out and about in hot and humid NYC, because I like the idea of blocking the sun from my skin, but during the work week I just wear my normal clothes (including cotton shirts), and rely on sunscreen applications to face, hands, and arms, and trunk while I’m at work. I did spend a week at the beach in SoCal in July pretty covered up (rash guard, sun hat, neck guard), and only swam and boogie boarded after 5 pm, which felt limiting, but still felt great to be out in the salt water at all. And I’m an active endurance runner/marathoner and used to wearing typical running clothes during long runs, which has been a bitter pill to swallow for me, and has made me only run in the pre-sunrise hours, or after the sunsets at the moment.

Take courage, and know you’re not alone, and that while this is not a fun club to belong to, it’s not a condition that has to drive you indoors and make you a vampire. You’ll have a good team at the VA to help you along the way. I would advocate for being seen every 3 months for the next 2 years (that’s what all of my doctors have said, and I think that’s pretty standard practice for recently diagnosed melanoma). Others on this site might say that getting in touch with an oncologist is a good idea for your stage, whereas others will say that it’s not needed. Since I’ll be working with a melanoma specialist and seeing my regular dermatologist on a regular basis, and since there was no evidence of further disease beyond the tumor on my back that was excised, I am not pursuing oncology visits at this time. But that is a decision you’ll need to come to on your own and with the guidance of your providers.

Hope what I’ve typed here is of some comfort. All the best,

Derek

Avoid the Sun

According to Teitelbaum, the myth that people should avoid the sun all the time results in tens of thousands of unnecessary cancer deaths each year. Teitelbaum states that the deadly skin cancers, melanomas, do not occur on sun-exposed skin, they are due to poor immune function, lack of sleep, poor nutrition and other non sun-related factors.

Skin cancers from the sun are not usually the dangerous kinds, but the sun is critical for vitamin D, an essential vitamin and hormone. A lack of vitamin D increases the risk of breast cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Teitelbaum states that the best bet is avoid sunburn, but not the sun.