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Third time’s a charm? Not!

My first melanoma diagnosis was in 1993 at the age of 36. It was a small dark mole on my ankle. Showed it to my general doc who said “just watch it” showed it to her again months later and she sent me to a dermatologist who diagnosed it as melanoma - at that time they didn’t stage it for me other than “ caught it early”.

26 years later I felt pretty confident about beating it, but in 2019 another one popped up on my chest. Thanks to my sharp-eyed new dermatologist she caught it and it was diagnosed in situ and removed. Now in 2021 last month she found yet another on the back of my arm (which I never would have spotted) staged a 1A. Surgery is done and it’s gone, but after three of these, I can’t help but worry when the next one will rear its ugly head. Not a fun state of mind to be in. I do feel incredibly grateful they were all found early, but the anxiety is still there.

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