dear 16 year old me...

I am sure many of you have seen this, it has been out for almost a year now.  But, I wanted to share this in case someone may have missed it.  It is almost spring and I know everyone gets the urge to go tanning so please take a moment to watch.  But first, here is my story....

  About 8 years ago, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.  I had a small spot on my leg which I asked my doctor about, and she said, "I am not sure, but I can send you to a specialist..." we didn't have good insurance, and Ryan was in seminary, so...I said, "no thanks, I am sure it's fine."  Didn't think too much about it until...Christmas rolled around and my sister gave my parents a HUGE medical book and as I was flipping through it I saw a picture of the exact spot that was on my leg, under the heading of "Malignant Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer...!"  I decided to ask a friend who was a nurse if she thought it was suspicious and she immediately told me to "get that taken off!"   So I called my doctor back,{nearly a year later} and got that referral.  Sure enough, they took a biopsy and I got the call with the dreaded word CANCER  and my name attached to it! yikes!  I went back in and they took out a HUGE chunk of skin from the top of my left leg.  I still have a nasty scar.  Thankfully, they got all of it.  It was a slow growing form and had not spread any further, so no other treatment was necessary.  I had to have skin checks every 6 months and now I go back every year.