E GADS!!!
Got a bit of my arm sliced out July 6th.  Had one of those moles....  fair skinned, blue eyes, blond hair major sun enthusiast since the day I was born and kind of moley anyway.....perfect ingredients for  one of those moles.
I'd watched it change for about a year before having several friends and family say - "you need to get that checked."  Costs were a factor,  even tho I do have health insurance with a $5000 deductible... and played a major role in how long it took me to go in.  Fortunately when I did go my doc Jaffee said - "yep that looks kind of funky", biopsied it and it was indeed melanoma but very early.
So I had part of the skin on my arm sliced out by general surgeon Rick Bell.  I asked him for a lighting bolt scar or maybe an exclamation point? something creative but he said that wasn't in my plan.  Melissa Ligon who was in the room said she'd design it but I think he thought we were silly.
When I first got the word that it was melanoma I gave Libby a call who is an expert in many things and  all things skin and cancer ....she said "Don't look it up. It will be too scary and say "melanoma is the most deadliest fastest metastasising cancers".  Just don't even do it."  I'm glad she warned me.
Of course I did look it up and that was indeed the lead in for a couple of sites I looked at but then I just studied the lingo a little to educate myself about the stages and numbers attached and the calculations they use and percentages and blah blah blah.  So, when I got a copy of the pathology report I sort of understood it and then I asked Dr Bell to explain it to me which he did in simple understandable terms.

I am trying to be pretty matter of fact about it although I can honestly say the questions and the concerns enter my mind more often than I'd like.  Such as life.
I also have to say I have this song going through my head to make light of it to the tune of Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you -
Melanoma, Melanoma you have maimed me.

Its kind of like the rat in the toilet story tho.

A couple of years ago I got up in the morning.  Peed.  Flushed the toilet.  Was washing my face and then saw something appear in the toilet and it was hairy and it was dog paddling or rat paddling I guess in this case.  I FREAKED!!!  Yelped.  Slammed the door shut (you have to hold the door shut on my old bathroom door -  it doesn't latch.) Kellane was sleeping in the room next door and my roommate at the time Rocio Garcia was upstairs sleeping.  I yelled for Kellane and she was very irritated that I was waking her up.  I said "THERES A RAT IN THE TOILET!!!!"  She said "MOM!  CALM DOWN!  ITS JUST A RAT!  TYLER HAS ONE AS A PET!!!"  She was absolutely no help.  I yelled for Rocio and she came bounding down the stairs to where I was holding the bathroom door shut.  'THERES A RAT IN THE TOILET!!"  I said.  "Move out of d way, lit me see."  Rocio said in her Spanish accent, pushing me aside.  We both peaked in and there it was on the back of the toilet on its hind legs, like 6 inches tall, wet and beady eyed.  Ratatoilet.   Rocio darted to get a broom, I heard a splash.  She said "Move!" and charged into the bathroom shutting the door behind her.  I could hear her poking around and she said "I din't see it!  It is nowhere!"  "I heard a splash."  I said.  She came out an that was that.  It was gone.  Escaped back through the sewer.

I was ruined for several days thinking that I WOULD NEVER be able to sit comfortably on my toilet or maybe ANYONES toilet for the rest of my life.  Damn.  But after a while it was not the first thing I thought of when I would sit down and really don't think of it much at all anymore.  I got over it.

When it comes to melanoma...
One of the most joyful, enjoyable and seemingly healing things I have done all my life is sit in the sun.  It makes me happy.  It gives me new hope, ideas, a recharged feeling.  I am drawn to it.

Now it feels slightly sinister.  Or maybe its just because its the dog days of summer in Columbia, SC where the temperature has reached new recorded highs...
I have this nice inch n a half scar on my arm to remind me to wear sunscreen and put on a hat.

I don't want to be afraid of the sun or a rat or melanoma so I'm just gonna try not and think about it too much.  Until the rat comes back.  Maybe it never will.  I'll get over it.