Part One

(This is a story I have never written about, I feel like its time for so many reasons. It will take more than one post)

January 1999

“It is nothing to be concerned with, I would probably just have it removed for precaution” said the family Doctor who called us after the biopsy results had come back, so we did just that made an appointment to have it removed. The spot on Brads back had been there since we married at 19 but had lately started to change a bit in size, shape, and color.

February

The door opened late as it always did on basketball nights but this time I heard two voices, as I went out to see why, I saw his friend helping him limp in as I thought, “oh crap what did he break?” It wasn’t 3 weeks later we were up in Provo having his ACL repaired, and spent the next few months helping him recover and taking him to re-hab appointments. To be honest the spot on his back was out of our minds.

July

Brad takes Torrie to Lake Powell with his family, she always loved the cliff jumping, tubing, and camping with her Aunts and Uncles. Lake Powell had been a part of almost every summer for him growing up and with his fair skin, blue eyes and red tinted hair the rays made for some serious sunburns throughout the years. Brad mentions when he gets home that it is probably time to go ahead and follow the Dr’s advice and have that spot removed because when he was in Lake Powell he said it felt like hot needles pocking his back on the spot when he was out in the sun.

August

Dr Smith has Brad prepped and ready to scrap off the spot as he pauses and asks, “What did they say this was?” and decides to biopsy it. Honestly, we put it out of our minds again. A few days later I get a call at home, its Dr Smith, what he said next was all a mumble to me as I tried to piece together the important words “Surgery” “Melanoma” “MALIGNANT” “Salt Lake City” and “no this cannot wait”. Within a few days we were at LDS Hospital and Brad was lying on a cold table in a radioactive room with blue dye being pumped into him to see which way the melanoma was growing. Surgery the next day went well leaving a very big open wound on his back across his shoulder blade and towards his arm; the lymph nodes had been removed as well. We were sent on our way to recover over the weekend and told to come back Monday for the results; we stayed in Provo and tried to carry on as normal. The wound was so big and so deep it was hard to keep the stitches from ripping open. Essentially, he had about a 2x7 inch strip of skin removed and 1 inch deep at the point around the spot. Metal stitches tried holding it together (they really should have grafted it) so any time he moved it would rip open and (sorry graphic) ooze out, it was impossible to keep him down so we were constantly changing the dressing on it. By the way I am NO nurse and do not have a good stomach for those things, but I did it.

Brad had turned 27 just a week before; I sat there waiting for the Dr on Monday with all the possibilities reeling in my head. What this could mean for our lives our children’s lives, honestly, I felt very alone and could not imagine what he must be feeling. The Doctor announced that the lymph nodes were clean!! We were told that had Doctor Smith just scraped of the spot it was already internal and it would have spread to his organs and probably would not have lived another year, we would never had known it was in him until it was to late! He believed he had removed it all but he would need to be monitored every 6 months and with chest X-rays every year. It had not even been a week since the original phone call from Dr Smith.

We had been through Cancer …..The initial emotions, the fear, the worry, the being strong and ready to fight all in less than a week. I have always been grateful for that and realize it is not like that for so so many people. Over the years there were checkups some chest X-rays, and some treatments on the face as many skin cancers (Basal Cell and Squamous Cell Carcinoma’s) started to pop up. We felt like a bullet had been dodged when we reached the 5-year mark and then the 10-year.

The Questions:

Why had we waited so long to have it removed?

If it was nothing to worry about in Feb was it a mis-diagnoses or had it grown that fast by August? (I believe it was that fast moving)

Why didnt I know what to look for and say something as I saw it changing over the years?

Did the Doctor REALLY get it all, or was there some lingering cell in there ready to attack?

Why was there not more education about this towards young people?

Every young person needs to watch this, how many peope just dont know? Dear 16 year old me.