Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part FourBy: Jean Johnson for Wounds1
Part Four
There Tara Sullivan was, upstairs in her Portland bungalow in a light-filled room lined with books and decorated with Tibetan images. Her finger went to her cheek, and then she got up to check the lump in the mirror. There it was – a tiny pink bump the size of a half grain of rice.
“That’s when the death sentence came,” she said, “when I got melanoma.”
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Melanoma Background
Melanoma is the most serious of all skin cancers. It is a group of cancerous tumors composed of melanocytes, the cells that produce the melanin that colors your hair, skin, and irises. In many cases, melanoma will spread to other parts of the body, causing additional malignant tumors.
Signs of Melanoma
Visible change in a mole you may have had for a long time, including itching, lumpiness, enlargement, change in color, irregular or dark border, bleeding.
Avoid Melanoma
You can lower your risk for melanoma by using a sunscreen with an SPF (sun protection factor) of 30 or higher when you are in the sun. Be aware of the early warning signs of melanoma and consult your doctor if you suspect you may have it.
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Death sentence notwithstanding, Sullivan’s crusty irreverence is never far from providing some ballast. “My cheap Irish body. I think diabetes was the outcome of having a cheap Irish body. And then I got that stinking pink Irish skin, too.”So off she went to the dermatologist where they biopsied the growth even though on initial inspection it appeared benign. Not 24 hours had passed, though, when Sullivan got the call that nobody wants – “I’m sorry to tell you, but…”
“The next line of fire was to remove it, and the margins,” Sullivan said. “Margins. They make a big deal out of those when you have melanoma. The idea is to go out past the area where any cells are present. Still, if the stuff has metastasized to your lymph nodes like they discovered mine had, all the margin work in the world won’t save you. That’s when they said a second surgery was necessary to go in and get the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck that used to hang there like a cluster of grapes.”
After some highly exact slicing and dicing, Sullivan’s medical team offered her the further option of taking Interferon. “The thing is that melanoma is very pernicious and even though they thought they got it all in the lymph nodes, there was no guarantee that it hadn’t already gone elsewhere – its favorite destinations being your liver, brain, bones or lungs,” she said.
“But this Interferon thing didn’t sound good to me at all. Basically they said I had a 10 percent chance of living past five years if I did nothing, while if I took the Interferon that apparently makes you terribly sick the whole time you’re on it – and they said I’d have to take it as long as I lived – I could increase my chances to 15 percent.”
Sullivan decided that since the drug therapy didn’t look very promising, she’d opt for “a few good years and let the cancer do what it would do.” So far, it’s turned out that she chose a wise course. It’s been four years since her initial diagnosis, and there’s no evidence of cancer in her body. “I saw my oncologist three weeks ago, and she said ‘we’re getting ready to kick you out of the program if you’re still free of cancer next year at this time.’”
Music to the Irish lady’s ears. The short-stuff woman has come a long way.
Up, down and around the pike with a relocation that was quite hard on her, anger that threatened to bowl her over, menopausal hormones that sent her running for the meditation cushion, a very reputable Sixties substance abuse problem, and a string of health problems no one wants on their necklace.
Through it all, though, Sullivan found the support she needed. Her husband, physicians, trainer, Buddhist dharma pals, and close personal friends like the gentleman who put cold hard cash on the line for her. She laughs a deep throaty laugh. “I guess it’s true, I have had quite a little help from my friends. Makes sense since that song is one of my favorites – always has been ever since the Beatles came out with it back in the good old days.”
