The first thing I'd like to update is my last excisions. Remember the scar that looked pretty bad for a stage 0 melanoma? This is what it looked like 2 weeks after the excision:
Not bad at all! I know the picture is terrible, but it's really hard to take a picture from that angle! The scar is barely even visible, what looked so bad in the first picture was the glue, once that came off, it looked so much better. You can see where the band-aid was irritating my skin though. The 2nd excision was on my leg, and it's healing very well, but this is where I will offer advice to anyone having an excision done - do NOT opt for a shave removal as opposed to a punch removal! If you are having the initial biopsy done, NEVER opt for a shave, as that could keep them from properly staging it if it is melanoma. In this case, they'd gotten it all, and it was just a question as to how to get clear margins. They thought a shave might be better so that I didn't have to worry about stitches, but the shave (basically they just scooped out some skin and left it open to heal) has been a pain! I keep it covered in Vaseline and band-aids, but the band-aid again is irritating my skin, and it's just gross and is taking forever to heal! Good news is, both of them came back with no melanoma/atypical cells, so they got everything with the initial biopsy. I guess the bad part is that I was cut on for no reason, but a few weeks of annoyance is better than not knowing!
As far as the drug trial, I have now had my 4th treatment, and still zero side effects! I ran/walked a 1/2 marathon 2 days after my 3rd treatment. After the 4th treatment (about a week and a half ago), there have been times I was wondering if side effects were kicking in, but I don't think so, aside from maybe some fatigue - it's hard to say if that is because of the Ipi, or just because I've been pushing myself in the gym a little more and taught 3 spin classes last week on top of everything else!
I also started the "Lean Body Challenge" last week, although I could probably just call it the "Eat Clean and Workout Challenge" because that's my real focus. I've got some gym friends and Facebook friends participating with me, and I also joined a DietBet and have $50 to lose if I don't lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks. If you need motivation to eat right and work out, check out their website! Btw, losing 1% of your body weight per week is very safe and reasonable weight loss. What's bad is that my health alone wasn't enough to keep me motivated, because it really should be, for all of us. Whether I had melanoma or not, my health should be one of the most important things to me, but I have a hard time putting the effort into it sometimes. You have to shop for groceries, you have to get all this food ready to eat, whether cooking or prepping, you have to have the willpower to actually eat this healthy fresh food when you're tempted to go out to eat instead, you have to make time to exercise and many times, force yourself to finish when you don't feel like it. Isn't it so much easier to sit on the couch, and order a pizza?! But, we truly "are what we eat", and I sincerely feel so much better when I am eating healthy lean protein, whole, unprocessed carbs, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. I've never once left the gym thinking, "I wish I'd went home and watched TV instead", I'm always glad I exercised, even when I have to get up early on a Saturday to go running, even when it wasn't my best work out or when I've struggled through an entire run. I did the "Lean Body Challenge" 2 years ago, and my goal was to win the challenge - which included winning a cruise! This time, I just needed something external to motivate me and I'm not "officially" entering the challenge, but my goals are to use the 12 weeks to learn how to live a healthy life style, once and for all, not for a 12 week period, but forever. I'm not saying I will never eat fries and pizza (because I haven't lost my mind!!), but the junk food (and a lot of it really is just junk, if it doesn't do something GOOD for your body, it's doing something BAD) should be an exception, maybe a treat, not part of a regular diet. I had it flipped around for a while, where the junk was the rule, and the healthy food was the exception. Bottom line, whether you are skinny or fat, young or old, healthy or sick, what you put in your body is important! Being skinny and appearing healthy doesn't get you off the hook - think of a car that looks awesome on the outside, shiny paint, nice wheels, clean interior, etc, but under the hood, the engine is rusted, has low quality fuel, no oil or fluids, hoses falling off everywhere; how far is that car going to take you? Is it worth it to have a car that looks nice but can't make it to the end of your street? The flip side of that is a car that looks beaten up on the outside, maybe some dents, some paint missing, little body rust, but the engine has been maintained, fluids are topped off, high quality fuel is being used, and you could drive it across the country and back. That's a Melissa original analogy, and you're welcome :)
I wonder if I posted more often, if my posts would be shorter? Yeah.....I doubt it too.....
Anyway, til next time, I'm going to steal a line from one of my favorite movies ever, Take Care of You!
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