Today is Melanoma Monday, a day set aside by the American Academy of Dermatology for awareness of this all-too-often deadly form of skin cancer. People often think of skin cancer as no big deal, and even melanoma is incredibly curable when caught early. Mine wasn't, but fortunately, a year and a half out from diagnosis and surgery, I'm still coming up clean. But just this morning I heard that a friend's husband, who has been battling Stage 4 melanoma for three years, has taken a turn for the worse and now is facing more brain surgery.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about melanoma being disease of the week on Grey's Anatomy, but I do hope it helps to raise awareness and hopefully get some people making appointments with a dermatologist to get that weird mole checked. Know the ABCDs (asymmetry, border, color, diameter) to look for, and the EFs (evolutionary changes, funny looking). It could mean the difference between life and death.