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Jon Short

Well we get fried down under don't we?!

Melanoma.... nasty shit. Have just had a scare & a very lucky escape.

Had a mole removed from back of neck at hair line ... not because Dr (GP) said I should. Had it all my life & decided to get it taken out because I'm cautious about melanoma seeing as the hole in the ozone layer enables us lucky buggers here in NZ to be fried in less than 20 minutes.

Anyway, the pathologists histology report came back as a rather thick malignant nodular melanoma. Very serious shit indeed.

So my brother who is a Dr in Akl, sends me up to JAF (Akl) to see a plastic surgeon & melanoma specialist. Next thing I'm getting a full CAT scan, radioactive die injected around the incision & tracked by scanner to find my sentinel lymph nodes then marked on my neck by permanent marker & into hospital.

1.5hr surgery done to take a wide area excision around the original now healed cut of 80x40x10mm thick, & two sentinel lymph nodes removed. I have a 10 inch cut that's healing well now. They gave me a neck flap, effectively a neck lift, taking the wrinkles out of my neck which pisses my wife off because it makes me look younger.

Mark the plastic surgeon (legend) not only had the lymph nodes & wide area tested for cancer cell as they do but we had decided to have the original mole slides re read by a pathology professor in Akl... the best there is I believe. This was because the original report just didn't add up.

So, the wide area & nodes came back clear, great!, but __ me gently but the original histology report was wrong! It wasn't a malignant melanoma, rather it was a very rare Bapoma & benign. They mimic a nodular melanoma but their histology has some subtle differences.

Anyway, just wanted to remind you guys out there in Aus & Kiwiland that we've gotta be friggn careful in the sun. Sun block & cover up. SPF a million. Get a regular check up by a skin specialist not a GP & if in doubt cut the friggn thing out. I've been v careful all my life & work inside, so it can happen to anyone.

Once you have had a melanoma the nasty thing is that mirco partles can circulate around in you lymphatic or blood system even if your nodes & wide area comes back clear. Drs can't detect them. They can flair up at any time & kill you. Especially if you get run down. So, it hangs over you for the rest of you life. Thankfully I'm in the clear, but man that was close!

Cheers,

Jon