The goal of SunBlitz.com is to offer you support and hope as you make your journey through diagnosis, treatment, management and care.  When I was diagnosed in 1997, a resource such as this would have been invaluable to me.  My hope is that you find it helpful.  My goal is to maintain current and reliable information.  I  am not only interested in your feedback, but I request it.  I offer you understanding and compassion.

I am a melanoma patient and I have survived this lethal disease for 8 years. Today my medical classification is NED, no evidence of disease. Please take note of the word "evidence."   I am struggling to learn to live with an ever-present shadow of fear.  There are days when a certain sadness overtakes me and without warning, I cry. I greet each morning with, "Thank you for this day."  It is a sincere and grateful prayer.

Melanoma is a beast and your challenge will be to attempt to outsmart it through accepted methods of prevention and management.  As in any battle, your best chances for survival are to:
 be prepared and be relentless....

A benign looking flat “age spot” that was incorrectly and carelessly burned off by a dermatologist without words of warning, information or biopsy, could have killed me.  I didn't know to ask questions.

The following is taken from the letter of the wife of a melanoma patient and it relates directly to my diagnosis:

Lentigo:  age spot (although my husband was in his early 30's when his started) Lentigo Maligna:  mm insitu.  The good thing about Lentigo Maligna is that it can stay in a radial growth phase (insitu) for a long period and sometimes get quite large before starting vertical growth and becoming invasive. Lentigo Maligna Melanoma:  The correct term for a Lentigo Maligna that is no longer insitu and has started to invade.  This is a variety of melanoma, such as superficial spreading, etc.  It's more common in the elderly and is associated with long term sun exposure.

Some of the reading that I have done about Lentigo Maligna melanoma states that it invades in nodules.  It forms a nodule and while that nodule is invasive the rest of the lesion may be at a lesser Breslow or even insitu. This  makes it critical that the whole lesion be correctly removed for pathology.  (Looking at one piece of it can't begin to tell you the whole story.  You have to have the whole thing.)

This same article stated that once Lentigo Maligna melanoma forms a nodule and invades, while it would still be called Lentigo Maligna mm, it has in fact become a nodular melanoma, and should be treated with the same caution and concern that a diagnosis of nodular melanoma would bring.

Today I would get… no…. insist on a second opinion and demand a biopsy.  Just those two proactive exercises might have spared me not only lifelong physical and emotional issues but the devastating reality and attendant labels permanently attached by health insurance providers. A six-year survival of melanoma carries no importance when qualifying for health insurance.  I will always be considered high risk. 

And of course there is the issue of losing my cheek and what might have been, my life. 

Please remember: Melanoma at best is one of the most lethal of all cancers.  It is also highly preventable.

I know that recurrence is not only possible, but common and often deadly. If my life story, "The Skin I'm In", the creation of SunBlitz.com and the development of my seminar program Save Your Skin, Save Your Life, makes a difference in one life, my commitment will have been worth it.

This site is an opportunity to relate to a melanoma patient who monitors herself weekly for signs of recurrence. However, if you want an inside look at melanoma patients actively fighting for their lives you should subscribe to the St. Johns University Listserve.  There you will find 300 subscribers, both patients and caregivers.  But be prepared for shocking stories from some of the bravest people you will ever encounter. 

I have written my life story, "The Skin I'm In” which is currently in editing.  I have recounted  my childhood where my disease had its beginning, my journey through young widowhood, single parenting, re-marriage and divorce and my detailed experience with melanoma. It has been a long road from there to here but I am alive, blessed and currently on a mission to make a difference. I invite you to listen to an interview I had with the Amercian Cancer Society's Cancer Survivors Network.  You can also read my story on the American Cancer Society's web site.

As you visit the departments in SunBlitz.com and have suggetions or personal stories you would like to share with me, I invite you to do so.  If I can be of assistance or support, please contact me at: Linda@sunblitz.com