For mom's everywhere you worry constantly when you are pregnant, especially with your first child. In September of 2005 I found out that I was pregnant and at around 17 weeks I found out that it was a little girl! I was so excited! Now to tell this story I will have to back track to 2003. I had gone to visit my mom and she noticed a tiny black freckle on my shoulder that had a red ring around it. I figured that it might be a black head but she said that I had to have it looked at. Unlike my mom, dad, brother, and sister, I have red hair and fair skin. So, she always worried about me and the sun! It probably didn't help that I was born in Puerto Rico. Anyway, I went and had it biopsied and they told me it came back fine. No worries! Now jump forward to 2006. It was February and my baby was due at the end of June. I always rubbed the scar from where they removed the little black freckle but on this day I noticed that there were two large bumps there. When I looked in the mirror I found two black moles growing out of the scar. Right away I made an appointment with a different dermatologist. That doctor took one look at them and removed them. On the same day, he froze a place on my forehead. About a week later I get a call from the doctor. He informed me that I had malignant Melanoma cancer. I stood in shock. I had cancer and I was pregnant! When he told me that he wasn't sure about life expectancy I almost lost it. I called my mom right away. She started to cry and said that she would call me back. About an hour later, she called me back to let me know that she had made me an appointment at the UNC Melanoma Clinic. So there began my journey. I believe it was a couple weeks later that I had to drive 6 hours to where my lives and to the UNC Melanoma clinic. They took another biopsy and let me know that I had to wait until the baby was born to have the Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and surgery to get clean borders. They also told me that they would have to send my placenta off to be tested because Melanoma can travel through the blood, into the placenta, and to the baby. My biggest worry was now not for my life but that I had given my unborn baby cancer. Four months later my baby girl was born and two weeks after that I had my procedure. Since, they put radio active dye in my system I had to "pump and dump" my milk for a week because it would be dangerous to the health of the baby. Needless to say that after a week of being bottle fed she did not want to breast feed and I was almost dry anyway. A few weeks later I got great news: clean borders, no cancer in my lymph nodes, and none in the placenta. Now it is 2012 and remember the place I had frozen on my forehead, well, it kept growing and nothing seemed to get rid of it. After a biopsy of it, I found out that it was Basal Cell Carcinoma. Cancer AGAIN!! But the better news was it was not Melanoma. Now, I have scar on my shoulder, neck, and back of the head from the Melanoma and where they took two lymph nodes and I have a scar on my forehead. I am currently cancer free but still have to go to the dermatologist every six months for full body check ups. I am now high risk for more Melanoma in my future if I am not careful.
If this story can just one person I will be happy!! Put sunscreen on your children and on yourselves. DO NOT lay in tanning beds or get a bad burn from the sun. I'd rather be a pale red head than a tan one with cancer and I refuse to die from skin cancer!!
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