Get your skin checked!!

[mtbkym01 4166]

Hi all, I haven’t had that much time for RC lately, along with work, some house Reno’s and training upgrading my Marine qualifications, I’ve also been diagnosed with Melanoma. I had a work medical which involved having to remove outer clothing (which is a new process). The examining Dr advised that I should really get a mole checked out.

This was a bit of a scare but I took the old adage of “It wont happen to me”. Anyway, I took that Dr’s advice and made an appointment with my own clinic, who happen to have a skin cancer specialist on site. After examining it, he immediately booked me in for the lesion to be removed for pathology testing. He did prepare me saying it’s probably Melanoma. I had been aware of this mole for quite a while and had always meant to get a check but never got around to it.

The pathology came back as positive for Melanoma, but it was in-situ. This means that it hasn’t spread at this stage, the Dr will need to perform further removal to get a 1cm margin (The original procedure gained a margin of 1mm). 1cm margin is required for them to declare me cancer free.

This has been an extremely scary time and I have most definitely dodged a bullet (I seriously thought I was going to die). 

So all my RC friends, please please please get your skin checked regularly, its extremely simple, and skin cancer can be seen so is entirely avoidable, unlike most of the others, so there is no excuse! I know I’ve learned my lesson, I’m 99.9% safe from here for now, but will be regularly getting checks.

So although my RC time has been pretty quiet, you all will be seeing my project thread continuing (Got some stuff in the pipeline)

Thanks all for reading if you made it this far

[yogi-bear 2419]

good advice,

my wife pestered me to get a check up 2 years ago and the dermatologist found one on my head, luckily also at the very early stages. Having watched my step mother go through chemo and radiation therapy last year, even though she was ultimately cleared, its something you will want to avoid as even in the best of cases its can be pretty unpleasant.

I was also add, as there are a lot of guys here, get your bowel cancer/prostrate check up too, especially if you are over 50.

[Mad Ax 10130]

Very glad to hear they found it and removed it before it caused you any serious problems @mtbkym01 and thanks for the advice.

I should probably get checked out, although it's hard to see a doctor here unless you a) pay for it or 2) already have something seriously wrong with you - but there must be a process for people who are concerned, without actually having obvious visible signs.

I was a package-holiday kid from the 80s, we often spent our summers in southern Europe and back then the strongest sunscreen available was factor 10.  We'd generally apply factor 5 and go out in it all day long.  I remember my mum telling me that factor 10 was for people visiting places like Africa.  I've just checked the NHS website and it recommends a minimum of factor 30 for going outside in the UK between 11am and 3pm, from March to October.  My sister had a melanoma around a decade or so ago, which could well be related to all those sunny holidays with insufficient sunscreen.

TBH I rarely wear sunscreen in the UK - only if it's a clear day and I expect to be outdoors for more than a couple of hours.  I tan very easily and I don't remember the last time I got burned in an English summer, although I got caught out in Gran Canaria a few years ago by wearing sunscreen that wasn't fully water resistant, and my shoulders fried like a slice of bacon.  My lax attitude probably increases my risk factor significantly, but there again, I'm one of those "it won't happen to me" kind of people.

A few weeks ago we were in Egypt, and we religiously applied factor 50 on the hour every hour, we came home with not a single case of sunburn, even my wife who is on medication that makes her especially susceptible to burning.

 

 

[Klausen 1228]

Have almost the exact same story. 15 years ago, I had a birthmark checked, and it also came out positive for melanoma, so more was removed around, and I had to go to annual checks the next 10 years. Fortunately there hasn’t been anything since. But yes definately a wake up call, for both myself and the family. 

[Rinskie 860]

I had a hunk of my back removed last summer due to the same thing. I'll spare you the details but let's just say the hole they cut kept leaking for about a year before it fully healed. They caught it early, I hate to think the size of hole they would have taken if they found it a year later. I grew up in Texas so summers were mostly outside fishing, mowing, riding bikes, and RC stuff so it wasn't exactly a surprise when the derm told me a mole on my back was trying to take over. 

[Superluminal 3844]

Hopefully not an insensitive question...but did it have any particularly different feeling to it or were you aware of it being out of the ordinary other it just looking funny?

[mtbkym01 4166]

2 hours ago, Superluminal said:

Hopefully not an insensitive question...but did it have any particularly different feeling to it or were you aware of it being out of the ordinary other it just looking funny?

No different feeling at all, it wasn’t “raised” or “Scaley” or anything like that. Just a mole that recently changed its appearance slightly. 

[Re-Bugged 11297]

Glad you caught it @mtbkym01 & a wise reminder to heed 👍🏻 

Looking forward to you dusting off the cobwebs on your project thread.

[Badcrumble 4410]

Glad you caught it @mtbkym01, that worrying feeling is awful. Keep up with those checks and take care of yourself (I'm sure you will).

My childhood was a bit like that of @Mad Ax and my Mum revelled in just how I tanned as she was quite pale and I took my Dad's colouring.

Unfortunately, I gained the kind of moles (I forget their name but they are particular type) that she has and now I have a yoke round my neck and they are spreading down my back far in excess of any she has.  There's one on my face that the doc said is now too big to stitch if I had it removed (somewhat annoying as before they told me to leave it until it became an issue for me). I'm told they are benign but should get them checked if they change. So I'm in and out of the skin clinic at the hospital every few years, just to be sure.

As the song says, always wear sunscreen.

These days, I also suggest a hat.

[Pablo68 1095]

So my first thought was, oh, is he Australian?

That's how common that is down here. Glad they found it and you're being treated @mtbkym01.
I am 54, and I spent a lot of years as a kid/teenager out in the sun getting roasted to a crisp. Also did that a bit working, but not as much.
Honestly I can remember times where I was out in the sun all day and unable to sleep at night due to the sunburn. And I was not alone in that.
I've been lucky so far though, no bad moles yet.

I am going to +1 the advice from @yogi-bear about butt/bowel health. Get that checked. I lost a brother in law (wonderful bloke) to bowel cancer about a year and a half ago. He was only 39, left behind a wife and son. His was particularly bad, it killed him a year to the day of finding out about it. Oh, he was only 39. Life is hideously unfair at times.

Ok, not wanting to bring everyone down, but it is important.

I for one would not be against a Mens Health stick thread in the forum.

[Juggular 5080]

On the prevention side, if you go out in the sun, cover your skin.  

Even for a 5 minute run to test out the gear ratio, wear a hat and sunblock.  (Starting with me: I haven't followed my own advice often.)

Murphy's law applies to health.  Whatever could go wrong, would go wrong.  

 

[GeeWings 2858]

I'm glad you got on top of it quickly @mtbkym01. My wife had a pretty complicated Cancer battle for the last 18 months but she's through it now. I wouldn't wish what she has been through on anyone.

[mtbkym01 4166]

@GeeWings happy to hear your wife has got through it ok

[Tamiyastef 2528]

Glad to hear everyone is ok. +1 on the prevention. My wife and I become 54 this year. We get checked thoroughly inside and out every 2 year now.

Previously my wife got annual check ups as she was diagnosed with lymph node cancer at the age of 23. We were just living together and had a really though time back then.

Medical science has really evolved since then. She had the whole treatment with chemo and radiation and even today is limited in everyday live because of the ill effects of these treatments. But when the choice is living with the consequences or not living... I have a friend who's getting treatment for pancreatic cancer right now and he gets chemo that only attacks the bad cells. No hair loss, not the extreme sickness.

So dear people: no reason to not get checked regularly. The earlier you get the diagnose the better and the less invasive treatment that will cure you. Lesson learned the hard way and glad we're still here to talk about it.