I have been a little…oh ok…a lot floored this last week or so.
I had found myself in a happy place…I eat the right foods (Superfoods don’t you know!)….I drink my green tea…I exercise which oxygenates the cells in my body & I have even been making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of external chemicals and toxins I come in contact with.
In my happy place bubble, I felt all was well….I am currently what is known as NED – no evidence of disease. I thought that so long as I kept up the regime of good things then every bit of good I was doing was going to massively reduce the impact & likelihood of progression.
My 1 year “Cancer” anniversary is imminent & my head is filled with positivity that I am reaching a marker that in all honesty straight after diagnosis I wasn’t sure I would make.
And then the sure footing under me wobbled ever so slightly.
Sadly several people I know with Melanoma died …friends who had been fighting so hard…friends with little people…as little as mine.
The acceptance of their passing was hard…the acknowledgement of the loved ones they leave behind harder still…..but….devastating as that has been, I could place that loss in a box. I understand that Melanoma is without a cure & once you get to stage 4 there is an inevitable conclusion. That sounds cold…it isn’t meant too…just that that bit…the death bit…has been for me (in my happy bubble) safely 2 stages away.
The bit that has been the most unsettling & the hardest for me to process…the bit that has quite frankly scared me, is the stage jumping bit. Several people that I know of with Melanoma who are either stage 2 like me or even stage 1 have progressed…rapidly…to advanced stage 4….skipping the middle stages.
So to explain my fears just a little I thought I would explain how stages are calculated in the world of Melanoma.
I have also borrowed an image from Cancer Research website page about Melanoma depth that is quite a good reference to look at whilst I explain the :

Stages – all stages are generally divided up into a, b and c
Stage 1 (Early Detection!) 5 Year Survival rate of 85% – 95%
Stage 1a is where the Melanoma in less than 1mm in depth and not ulcerated (Ulcerated means hasn’t passed through the bottom of the Dermis layer – see image above) and has no tangible Mitosis (Mitotic rate – how fast the cells replicate)
Stage 1b is where again, it is less than 1mm in depth, isn’t ulcerated but does have a mitotic rate of less than 1 per 10sqmm (very low)
Stage 1c is where the Melanoma is slightly deeper – up to 2mm but has no Mitosis and is not ulcerated.
Stage 2 – High Risk – 5 Year Survival rate of 45% – 70%
Stage 2a when the Melanoma is still relatively small – up to 2mm in depth but there is no ulceration.
Stage 2b is when the Melanoma is bigger but not ulcerated – between 2-4mm in depth
Stage 2c is when the Melanoma is ulcerated and has a depth of between 2-4mm. Remember Ulceration is bad because it has broken past the Dermis and had the opportunity to get into the Blood system.
Stage 3 – Where the Melanoma is found within Lymph Nodes. I am stage 2c & the only reason my Melanoma is not Stage 3 is because there was no cancer found in my Sentinel Node at the time of the surgery. However the depth of my Melanoma was indicative of Stage 3, so for now we will just assume that I am very lucky there was no trace in my Sentinel node!
Stage 3a – Melanoma cells found in 1 Lymph Node.
Stage 3b – Melanoma found in up to 3 Lymph Nodes.
Stage 3c – Melanoma found in over 4 Lymph nodes or…1 Lymph node and regional Metastasis.
Stage 4 – Spread around the body….the stages go from 4a when it is Regional, 4b where it is found in the lungs to 4c where it spreads to other organs including the Brain.
It all makes logical sense….you start at stage 1 with reasonably good odds…hopefully never get to stage 2….get to stage 2……you stay stage 2 for years…if you are unlucky it spreads to stage 3….drug concoctions keep you there for a few years and then there is stage 4…which is tougher.
I know of people that have been fortunate enough to stay in each of the stages for 7-10 years.
The wind that blew my sails was very much because of the total unexpected – fast – stage jumping.
I have written this blog post because I felt I should explain the Staging aspect a bit more….because I have hinted a few times on the Facebook page over the last few weeks that I was feeling Blue.
I am past the blue now…I have a great Mr, 2 amazing Little People and some brilliant friends and family who all do their bit to pick me up and dust me down…and I am more determined than ever to run this 10k without stopping and implore all you to sponsor as much as you can afford so we can research what makes Melanoma so totally unpredictable and find a cure for this terrible disease.