My Experience with Skin Cancer

by Brad
(Ohio, USA)

When I was stationed in Florida with the United States Air Force I began to feel sick and weak. I had a lot of pain all over my body and it seemed like my joints were stiff all the time so I went to see the base doctor.

When I arrived at the doctor's office he started checking me out and noticed a large mole on my left bicep. After inspecting it further he noticed that the mole was oblong and bumpy.

He decided to do a biopsy and found that it was indeed Malignant Melanoma. The biopsy was very easy and the only thing that really hurt about the biopsy was the needle that was injected prior to them cutting.

The doctor described the tool they used on me as a sort of cookie cutter mechanism to get a nice clean sample of the skin.

After another small surgery to have it removed from my arm entirely, I have been fine ever since but I still do fear the possibility of a come back of the cancer. I guess you could say right now that I'm in remission.

The scariest thing about learning that I had cancer was that it runs in my family. Almost all of the females in my family have had cancer or at least one cancer scare in their lifetime and the majority of them have had skin cancer as well.

I'm not a doctor and cannot tell you if genes play a role but it seems to me from my experience that they do.