Melanoma Lurks in the Ville

Ok, I'm not sure how catchy that title was, but here goes...

I got a call yesterday of a young area woman who was recently diagnosed with melanoma. I know, it is a shocker because melanoma is not that big of a deal, and my husband was the only one to ever get this rare type of skin cancer, let alone, die from it!

You are reading that and thinking, no he's not. Well, you're right about that. According to Melanoma International, melanoma is epidemic: rising faster than any other cancer and projected to affect one person in 50 by 2010, currently it affects 1 in 75. In 1935, only one in 1500 was struck by the disease.

So if you do the math, our little safe, quiet 10,000-resident Maryville is home to other melanoma warriors. Statistically, there are somewhere between 135 and 200 currently affected. That doesn't mean those who are already dead (a.k.a. Brian). I'm talking diagnosed with some stage of melanoma.

And the call that came yesterday was for a pregnant mommy who will have her baby soon, followed by a PET scan to find out if the cancer has spread from the mole she had removed. I don't have permission to give her name, so I won't...but I was asked to pray for her and add her to my list. And you all out there have been so amazing to lift our family in prayer during Brian's illness and death, and during our grief...so I knew there would be many of you out there who could say some prayers for this young woman, as she prepares to give birth to her first child and faces a cancer diagnosis as well.

And oh boy, let me tell you that Katherine Heigl made a statement this week about the filming of Grey's Anatomy and what is to come of her character...

As for what happens to Izzie, Katherine said: "So, I won't give it away but, you know, I'm there so I'm either there as a ghost, on the other side or I survived a disease no one survives."

Holy cow!

I.seriously.don't.know.what.to.say.

But I've had a chance to think about it, and granted, I am saying this from a dead man's wife's perspective. I am thankful in a sense that they aren't sugar-coating anything. My dear friends on my cyberspace support group are torn between being very angry that she made melanoma out to be a death sentence, while others are relieved that she was straight-forward. My own personal opinion is that I will be disappointed if she doesn't die, or maybe be revived to soon be in hospice and then die, because otherwise, based on her current condition, it isn't realistic for her to recover from this like they do on soaps. I can understand how those living with the disease need hope, I do. We were there. We wanted to ignore it, to believe Brian was that small percentage. I personally don't think it is taking away hope to tell it like it is. I would rather have that, than to give a false sense of hope. We were ignorant. I tanned for our wedding, for God's sakes, and he was already a stage 2 melanoma patient! We were uneducated, and Brian would have been the first to admit that he just wanted the mess to be over and get on with his life, and he never really looked back. Would it have changed anything?

Woulda.Shoulda.Coulda.

The fact remains that melanoma is nearly 100% curable with early detection and treatment. So to say that no one survives it is probably stretching it. But I took Heigl's comment to mean that basically no one in Izzie's condition survives that. And that, my friends, is the God's honest truth, whether it sounds bad or not.

I chose not to jump in on the discussion with my cyber friends because I feel both ways. Those dealing with early stage of melanoma should look at her comment and think, jeez, I'm so thankful that I found mine early and I better keep up on my check-ups and treatments because this disease means business; and those in more advanced stages already know the statistics and are working for quality of life and for living with the disease, which CAN and DOES happen.

It just didn't happen to us.

My prayer today is for this new mommy to have a safe and easy delivery, followed by thorough tests and exams and treatment if necessary. I will keep you posted if I find anything else out.

So there should be 150ish people out there in the ville who are forced to deal with this. My prayer is that they all catch it early too. We can beat this thing!