Have you ever been told to put on sunblock or else when you grow old you will get skin cancer? I hear this all the time! People joke about skin cancer like it’s nothing serious, but it is not a joking matter. This is my experience of being diagnosed at 17.
On a normal summer day, I was out by the pool swimming and spending time with family when I started to notice the freckle on my chest did not look like a normal freckle anymore. As time passed it grew bigger, darker, and looked very spotted. My parents decided it was time to take me to the Dermatologist just to make sure that spot on my chest was nothing dangerous. I went in and after two seconds of the doctor looking at it he knew we needed to get it removed and sent off to the lab immediately for testing. We scheduled an appointment for me to come back to have it taken off. Arriving at my appointment a few days later, I tried to stay positive. I laid on the table as they numbed the area of skin and sliced off the top just enough for a test. I was so nervous, but I knew I was going to be okay. The next week my dad told me the Dermatologist had called and that they wanted to do more testing. I arrived and sat down next to my mom as my dad signed me in. Soon the nurse called us back and I walked into that cold room and sat down. The doctor came in and said, "You have Melanoma skin cancer and we have to take it out now.” I was in shock! I couldn't think as I laid down, fear rushing into my head. My mother and father both followed the doctor out of the room. I could hear the muffled voices as tears streamed down my face. “If you didn’t bring her here for another six months the, cancer would have spread through her body.” How could this happen to me?! I was only 17 years old! I wore sunblock all the time and never tanned. I tried to work out every possibility I could think of but it just didn’t make sense. They took a three inch chunk of skin out of my chest to make sure they got all the cancer out. I ended up with 35 stitches in my chest, but I was cancer free.
I didn’t tell a lot of people at school what happened to me. Only my family, some of my close friends, and my theatre family knew what was I was going through. I was scared and ashamed in a way. I didn’t want people to look at me or treat me differently. I was the same girl I used to be, but only with a life-long scar. I was upset at first with the universe. Why me? Why do I have to live with this for the rest of my life? Then after the shock went away I realized how lucky I was. I’m lucky to be alive. Some people lost their loved ones to cancer. I’m lucky I only have to deal with a scar and can live my life as I did before. It motivated me to be so thankful for everything in my life. I have and to live every day to the fullest. I turned to music to help me through the rough days. My favorite song is "A Little Too Much" by Shawn Mendes. It was everything I was feeling in a song. Music really helped me be strong and to focus on the positive. I still have to get checked all the time for new suspicious spots. They found another spot shortly after and immediately removed it. Currently, I am 19 years old. I have had eight procedures all together and over 100 stitches. Some are big and some are small; luckily only one out of eight was cancer, fourth out of eight were dangerous to medium, and the remaining three were mild to medium. I learned that keeping my story to myself would not be beneficial in any way, so I started to share it with everyone I could.
Skin Cancer is dangerous and an important/serious topic. Melanoma is very deadly and you won’t even know if you are sick because all you see is a discolored mole or freckle sometimes. I had at least eight doctors shocked to hear that I was diagnosed when I was 17, but it’s possible and should be taken very seriously. Anyone can get skin cancer, not just old people. If you have something suspicious on your skin please go get it checked out it could mean the difference between life and death. Remember to wear your sunblock at all times and to always take breaks out of the sun. Tans might be cool, but CANCER SUCKS!
