I had a study case to work on about melanoma (a type of skin cancer) and I thought I would share some important info I learned.
Melanoma is the number 1 cause of cancer deaths in women aged 20 - 30yrs and here are the 4 golden rules for assesing the risk of a mole potentially being cancerous
ABCD
A for Asymmetry
- One half is different from the other half.
B for Border Irregularity
- The edges are notched, uneven, or blurred.
C for Color
- The color is uneven. Shades of brown, tan,and black are present.
D for Diameter
- Diameter is greater than 6 millimeters.
here are some pictures.
and according to the American melanoma foundation, here are some other warning signs:
Other Warning Signs:• The appearance of a new bump or nodule• Color spreads into surrounding skin• redness or swelling beyond the mole• pain• tenderness• itching• bleeding• oozing• scaly appearance
I will never forget the girl that I saw last year in the emergency department.
She was in her late-20s, and came in with her husband, parents and sister.
I had no idea what was wrong with her before I went to see her, I was just told that over the last day she had started having some difficulty speaking...
it turned out that she had been diagnosed with melanoma about a year before, and it had already spread by the time they found it; she was just on chemotherapy to try and dampen down any symptoms...no hope of a cure.
The day before I met her she had been to visit her melanoma specialist and they did a CT scan and confirmed that it had spread to her brain...
...which may be why she now had the problem speaking.
So I think it was desperation that her family had brought her in to the emergency department.
They were all crying and so deeply deeply sad; her husband looked as if he'd been crying for the last year (probably had been); I will never forget it; it was like, for a few moments, I was a part of someone else's nightmare.
It made such an impact on me that I still think about her every few weeks.
She was also Catholic (it said so in her hospital notes), and she had had an abortion a few years previously.
That really struck a chord with me when I was reflecting on it last year.....what might've been different in her life if she'd had that baby?
Maybe nothing...may she still would've got the skin cancer...but maybe her family/husband would've been consoled by the child after she died...
or maybe the child would've changed everything..
it made me realise the importance of always doing the most loving thing in every situation, no matter how difficult, and trusting what God has given you, even if it's unexpected, because you don't know what else He has planned for you.
So this girl came in to hospital and the doctors decided to keep her in over-night to see if they could try and do something to help with her speech difficulties.
However, very very sadly she passed away barely 48 hours later.
I don't want to scare anyone; obviously there are also many many people who survive melanomas; they have them cut out and never have another problem again for the rest of their life...but obviously that is more likely to occur if it it caught early...so check your moles!!
ABCD
and please say a prayer for that girl.
God Bless
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2 comments:
How very sad. May the Lord have mercy on her and console her family. Yes, you wonder how the sorrow and pain of an abortion might have affected the immune system.
That is sad, and I will pray for her. It's so very important to look after ourselves and check our bodies and any warning signs of sickness.
I had a scare recently when some one at my Church noticed a mole on my arm that was blue, she told me that it could be a melanoma and I went straight to the doctor. Thankfully he said that it's ok and that having a blue mole is normal, had it not been I would have wasted no time in getting it cut out.
Great post!
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