Part Two: It returns

Along the years we were more careful about looking out for spots and noticing changes even with our girls, a few summers ago I asked Kyndall why she put one of those tiny little round band aids on her back when she went to the lake. It was clear she was tan everywhere but this small round spot, she said she didn’t put a band aid on. A few more times of insisting she must have put something over a spot on her back because it was white as white, she promised that she hadn’t. We took her in to the Dr with a violent flu (around the bird flu, or H1N1 era) and I asked him to look at her back, he was puzzled and got on the internet and googled “white area around a mole”. Seriously!! A PHD and your googling, I have become the master of googling since I witnessed that. This was the diagnosies, yes from google.

Halo Nevus

I was not taking any chances and back to Dr Smith, he removed the mole and the tests later proved nothing abnormal, she has since had several more white spots appear the one on the back being the worst , the color has never returned to the spot. So when Torrie popped up with a white, non pigmented spot on her chest I had to wonder if its genetic, if it’s a result of their blonde hair blue eyes, their father’s history of skin “issues”. Needless to say all of this made us more aware. Kyndall has since had 2 spots removed (one just last week) that have been suspicious, all tests have been negative for any carcinoma's. I tell this part of the story becuase there is more to skin cancer, there are many things that can be going on. Last week when I took Kyndall in I left feeling like I was a little over reacting, the spot HAD grown , HAD changed, WAS raised, but the Dr's hesitance to be worried left me feeling a little dramatic. We will never know if it was something to come but I refuse to not be worried. I will be pro-active becuase I dont ever want to hear the words melanoma regarding my girls.

Brad trained for hours and hours on his bike, and running outside for the Ironman in St George 2012. He was always really good at lathering up the high powered sunscreen on his face , head and neck but didn’t seem to be using any on his forearms, well as tan as they were getting I am certain he wasn’t. He has always been a big Lance Armstrong fan (ps we still are!) and have kind of adopted the saying “LIVESTRONG” as well as donating to that foundation it was an easy decision for Brad to decide his running attire would be all livestrong gear. Ironman day is long its grueling and those athletes are living strong, each one I am sure has a story a personal victory of what led them to that day, although Brad would never use the words “Cancer survivor” to describe him but I know he knows what could have been, and was grateful to be living strong that day knowing so many can't.

After Ironman was over we noticed he was getting a lot of sun spots on his arm as well as a spot on his chest, somewhere sun is not exposed to, so we thought it was probably that time for a yearly checkup.

July 2012

Dr Smith always walks in his office with his can of liquid nitrogen ready to freeze away, and that’s what he did to Brad’s arms probably 8 spots on each arm! He noticed one to look and feel a little different and decided to cut it off. He didn’t seem concerned with the one on his chest. He prescribed a treatment essentially topical chemotherapy for his face a 2 week on 2 week off 2 week on nightly applying of this cream, thank goodness for insurance the price before was $790.00! This cream pulls out any spots on the face that are cancerous and or could be a problem in the future; we were simply in awe of the results. He was covered in what was coming out all along both jaw lines. He had grown a short beard, not being able to shave while these open sores were healing, his lymph nodes near the jaw had swollen up and swallowing was painful. I honestly wished I would have taken a picture of this, along with all the burns on his arms. It was apparent the awareness and protection on our part needed to be taken extremely serious yet again. In the middle of this Brad called me and said Dr Smith had called the spot on his arm was Malingant Melanoma!

Halt the universe …WHAT???

Dr Smith felt like he got it all off and told him to come back in October. All the fears I had carried for 13 years came back, it came back!

How do we know they got it all? Is there more? I immediately started to google, and Brad completly on his own doing started to wear long sleeve shirts even on the football field for practice in 107 degrees, he knew what this meant we didnt even have to say anything to eachother.

Moving forward: after alot of reading and praying I realized that we dont know, we dont know if there is more, if it will come back. I realized Melanoma wasnt just something that happened to Brad at 27 but that it was something we both needed to realize was still very much a reality. Its nasty stuff, early detection is why people survive Melanoma, this time there was no huge scare no lymph nodes taken, thank goodness but had we waited the story would probably be different. All we can do is educate ourselves. Educate others, this is the purpose of my long multiple posts and greatly hope someone out there takes the time to read them, to watch the video I linked in the "Part One" post.

In case you missed it. Dear 16 year old me.

Thank you for reading, and if there is anyone really out there that follows my blog I hope you enjoy my posts, for us its all about "LIVING STRONG" and my hope is to document how Team Gardner is doing just that!