My family has history of melanoma, squamous cell and basal cell carcinoma, so it shouldn’t have been terribly surprising for this to show up on my sister. But it still came as a shock when the doctor told her a spot on her face was cancerous. Knowing that you are at a higher risk for these types of cancer, does not make receiving the news any less hard to bear. Cancer is that six letter word that nobody ever wants to hear, trust me – I know…
My sister went in to her dermatologist because she had a spot that kind of just looked like a zit with no head, on her face. She said it had been there for a few days, and she was feeling like it was not just a zit, that it was something more serious than that. The doctor told her that it looked like a basal cell carcinoma. He had to cut it out and sent it in to the lab to be sure. Removing it was fairly painful for my sister, and she now has 8 stitches in her cheek.
While not many of us like going to the doctor, I think it is important for everyone to get check out with a full body screening periodically, just to avoid potentially cancerous spots from spreading.