Ken - sorry to hear about the diagnosis, but you're a tough old bird - you'll get through this!
prayers & good thoughts for you go your way!

Ken, do you think it is all sun or sun and genetics? The reason I ask is because melanoma so often comes in places that don't see the sun. I have wondered about this.

I hope it is a quick fix...done on the first pass. Have you had MOHS before?


Our Duke MOHS surgeon id so skilled at the post removal repair that it takes months to get in...to me that is counterintuitive ...to wait that long......but no more so than the clinic stocking free Crispy Creme and other high fat donuts at the coffee station.

I am sorry you have to deal with this so soon after your back surgery and just when you rounded that last healing corner, but life is a crazy nutzy thing and I know your positivity will carry you for another round of tune ups and fixes. ..

Ken sending you positive thoughts Please keep us updated.

Thank you all for the good wishes.

Rosie, as far as I know, my family does not have a history of skin cancers. I spent a good part of my youth in the sun. I don't think sunscreen even existed back then.......that tells you how old I am. In my late 20's and through my 30's and 40's, I spent a total of perhaps 10,000+ hours on the Gulf, often without shirt, and shoes, only wearing shorts and perhaps a baseball cap. I rarely used any sort of sunscreen. I had a large, offshore fishing boat. I was one really tan dude!

I have had nothing but a few biopsies of skin lesions and until now, they all came back as benign, actinic plaques. I cannot tell you the number of these plaques I have had frozen over the last ten years. I have never had MOHS and know nothing about that procedure. I will know more about the surgery when I talk to the Dermatologist that will do the surgery. My Dermatologist doesn't do "real" surgery for some reason. The most she'll do is the biopsy.

I look at this as another of life's adventures. I have no real fear of either the surgery or the long-term prognosis. I can only stay optimistic, knowing others will do what's necessary and that those skills were one of God's gifts.

Ken, sorry to hear about the latest diagnosis at any time, but especially after your recent back surgery. Healing thoughts and prayers heading your way. Do keep us informed.

KEN healing vibes from me and puppy dog kisses from my kids

Jean and Ginger. I'll be fine.

@drdawg Will be thinking good thoughts for you. I spent my first 18 yrs on the MS Coast, lived two blocks from the beach. We never wore sunscreen either. In fact, we sometimes used iodine and baby oil to get a really dark tan. Years in Texas, Hawaii, and Arizona playing tennis, swimming, skiing, and sailing....I'm probably overdue for skin cancer of some kind.

Was going to ask about your back surgery. DH had the herniated disc surgery and it didn't work. His doctor was ready to fuse the discs in his back. He refused the fusion, so took injections from a pain specialist every three months in his back. I don't think I could drag him into surgery again. Hope your back is healing well and no further surgery is necessary.

Sandi

Thank you, Sandi. I cannot believe your mom used baby oil laced with iodine. That's exactly what my mom used back in the 40's and perhaps even in the early 50's. Coppertone, with its "Coppertone Girl", came out sometime in the early to mid 50's, but I think little was known about the risks of sun-damaged skin becoming cancerous. Heck, I find it ludicrous that people step into tanning beds of their own free will. Its not like science has not taught us the dangers of over-exposure to sun. I have even seen mothers put their dear little 6 yr. old Suzy in a tanning booth to prepare her for an upcoming "beauty" pageant. Talk about child-abuse.

I had my first lumbar surgery back in 1990, for a twice-ruptured disc. The sciatic pain led me to that decision. I don't think epidurals (steroid) were even available back then but if so, this procedure was seldom used. Last summer I decided I had endured enough decades of back pain, but more importantly, sciatic nerve pain. I knew that vertebral fusion would be necessary. There was no disc left between L5-S1 and little left between L4-L5. That's what disc ruptures do. With a herniated disc, aka bulging disc or slipped disc, there is still an intact disc.

However, just to see if there might be a non-surgical alternative, I gave epidurals a try. I had three injections and got little if any relief from those injections. Both the neurosurgeon and the anesthesiologist said there was absolutely no reason to continue with more epidurals. Surgery it was. I am doing pretty well, just still have to be careful in the work I do. I was told it would take anywhere from six to twelve months to be fully healed. I am now not quite four months post-op.

I have had MOHS and aside from it taking a long time -- not the surgery...the wait for the doc to remove and plate the tissue ..examine for clear borders ..etc..go back...perhaps take a bit more...repeat the plating and the path exam...(I saw a few folks going back for quite a few passes) ..it was a very easy uneventful process. The derms can't do it in house...it is a tissue sparing procedure ( hence each very very thin pass ) but quite a bit of the tissue may need removal and (rarely) grafting. I can't imagine how a busy all encompasing dermatology office could manage the one on one attention and ( unknown ) time frame per case (one pass? or 6 passes?) needing to be worked into to a typical office day. Plus the MOHS docs specialize and the lab and equipment is very specialized.

Re the genetic aspect....I was not thinking of inherited genetics but more like genetic mishaps. As an example: some sarcoma result from DNA translocation on chromosomes during fetal development. The sarcoma can develop sometime later in life. This is not related to paternal or maternal contribution. It is all developmental.

I have always wondered about melanoma since it can show up in fairly hidden and private locations and so sun exposure could not explain it all.

I am glad you have such a great attitude with things going bump. That attitude is catching.

For some reason I think I read somewhere that over-exposure to sun predisposes one to have melanoma growth. I can't tell you whether I am even correct, much less when/where I read this. I will have to do some "research" now that it has raised its ugly head and looked my way.

I hope you will share the results. I have no doubt sun has a contribution to skin cancers just wondered if in the case of melanoma it was just one part / or a risk factor in a melange of components

Don't know.

Ken, sorry about your cancer diagnosis, wishing you well with the removal surgery.

Thank you, Margaret, @mcash70

Sad that no matter how hard you try, you can't make someone love you or be a part of your family. Sometimes you just have to let go.

That is true but you can still be constant. Sometimes with folks on the wrong path or turning away..constancy brings them back in their own time or at least helps to sustain them on some level and that is what allows us to sleep at night. We can only do what we can do.

Rosie sadly I don't think I can even do that anymore. I've been the constant for 20 years. I don't think I can be in denial anymore and my 10 year old grand daughter is suffering. Her "big" sister just doesn't see us as family no matter how much we want her too.
Other than giving her our name we have been her family since she was 9 months old. I can't be a convenience anymore, it's not fair to my son. She will always hold a place in my heart forever but I guess not in our lives.

I can hear your hurt and you must do what is needed to protect the little one.

That decision in of itself is a constant.

Constant doesn't mean a vessel to be used and abused...nor does it mean you have to be a soft pillow to land on whenever she wants to leap.

What it means is that you are you.
Your values are your values.
Your limits are your limits.
That is the value in having someone in our life that is constant..we know that the person is there and when and if we are ready to accept the terms ...we can be sure everything will be as it once was. There is comfort in that and whether we realize it or not it will always be in the back of her head..like'a steady flame..
You are a good person. Don't fret. Sometimes we can't fix things. We can just wait and hope and be who we are.

Ronnie....