Melanoma prevention - it's up to you

I sat in the waiting room of the dermatologist’s office during a visit with my then 19-year-old son, Benjamin. We had been in that same office about two weeks earlier to have a “suspicious mole removed,” but this visit was for another purpose and my son had me sit in the waiting room in lieu of accompanying him to this particular exam with the doctor.

"I’ll be fine, Mom," and off he went through the door while I sat and continued flipping through a very non-compelling magazine while a talk show prattled on the television lofted high above the reaches of my fingertips that were itching to change the channel to another station…

"Mrs. D’Aulerio?"

I looked up, "Yes?"

"Doctor would like to speak with you."

I found it curious, but followed the nurse into the exam room.

"The pathology reports came back from the University of Pennsylvania on the mole we removed from Ben’s back 10 days ago." I nodded as he continued. "The results are not good. It was an early malignant melanoma."

All I honestly heard was the word "malignant." The doctor continued his bad news speech and I was able to pick out the words "re-excision" and "lucky" and "could have been fatal" and other such colorful words.

My son. Malignant melanoma, at the age of 19. It couldn’t be so, but I immediately said a prayer thanking God it was caught in time and focusing on what had to be done next. Within the next ten days, Ben had further surgery and has been left with a scar twice the size of a bay leaf on the lower left-hand portion of his back; however, he’s got his life and only the minor inconvenience of having the lather himself with sunblock (even on cloudy days) and dermatologist visits every three months for the balance of his (long) life.

I thought Ben’s brush with this deadly disease would conclude my need to further educate myself about this skin cancer. That is, until the late afternoon on the day of the Easter Vigil this year when my middle son, Max, came up and showed me the birthmark on his right ankle – it didn’t look so good. He had something emerging from the middle of his birthmark that looked like a big mole and he further informed me that it had been "like this for a few months." The timing for all of this was a little off as we were leaving for Jamaica at 7:15 Monday morning. After many phone calls from the airport, we ended up scheduling a meeting with Dr. M upon our return and the first thing he said when he saw Max's ankle was "that thing is ugly - we better take that off..." which he did April 20th.

In her book “Melanoma Prevention Detection & Treatment,” Catherine M. Poole states:

Cancer is feared more than death in our society. Melanoma seems especially ominous: malign, ingrown melanoma, spreading softly its dark tide," In reality, melanoma is menacing because no sure or easy treatment for it exists once it has spread beyond the initial site.

It would seem that early detection and evaluation are essential as there is no time to waste.

Epidemiologist have pinpointed certain characteristics that, whether they occur separately or in conjunction, predict who is likely to get melanoma.

- a sun-sensitive skin type that my freckle easily

- a history of spending too much time in the sun

- lots of common moles or any “funny-looking”

- a personal or family history of any common kinds of skin cancer (squamous and basal cell carcinoma) and

- a personal or family history of melanoma

On a personal note, Ben is a strawberry-blonde who has lots of freckles and sunburns easily. There was one time he got a bad sunburn – actually, on a very cloudy day in the summertime when sunblock was not reapplied – wh