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As I walk into the kitchen the conversation stops. I turn
and walk downstairs and get this feeling that my parents are
hiding something from me. And it's not good. This has been going
on for two weeks now. I go back upstairs and they both look at
me. "Is anything wrong?" I ask. They both say no. Three
days later my mom says she wants to talk to me. Hopefully I will
find out what the big secret is. As I sit down I notice she doesn't
look very good. "We put off telling you because we didn't
want you to worry," she said. She goes on to tell me that
the results of the testing on her mole hadn't come back the way
they wanted. She had skin cancer. Melanoma.
The worst kind of skin cancer there is.
I'll never forget the sinking feeling I had. Have you ever
thought about what it would be like to lose your mother? All
the memories I had of my mother ran through my head and I thought
that if she died I would not be able to live either. The next
month was hell waiting for the test results of the rest of the
biopsy. Thankfully, they got it all. There is no more cancer
left. She still has to go to the doctor once every year to make
sure it is gone and hasn't come back. It's been five years this
June and she is still healthy.
I realized that it can happen to anyone. It hit close enough
to home to make me think about my sun habits. Wandering around
my backyard in just a bathing suit. Spending hours out in the
sun uncovered. Not wearing sunscreen. All these things that my
mother did that caused her to get skin cancer. Having someone
close to you get cancer really can make you change you habits.
I don't go outside without sunscreen ever now. I always have
a tee-shirt to put on when I'm outside. Since that time I have
had 2 moles removed and have felt that anguished feeling of waiting
for the results. People don't understand why I would want to
have things removed from my body and put up with scars. I only
have this to say, I would rather put up with scars on my skin
than have no skin at all. |
