I am a Floridian, born and raised! I live for playing outside in the summer, especially beach, pool, and lake days! I spent my summers in college as a camp counselor and continued my love for camping and the outdoors when I began my family. I am a mom of two, a boy and girl, and recently we just got our twin nieces.
In 2018, when I was 20 weeks pregnant with my son, I had a mole removed from my chest that had started to form a small pimple like growth on the side. One week later I was diagnosed with stage 2b Melanoma and was meeting with a surgeon to remove any remnants of the tumor on my chest as well as undergoing a lymph node sentinel biopsy to see if it had spread to my lymphatic system. Thankfully, the pathology on my lymph nodes was negative, I was able to carry my son to term, and was only left with quarterly dermatologist visits and annual oncologist check ups.
Fast forward almost two years, in January 2020, I discovered a lump in my right breast. I had a mammogram done and even though they believed the lump to be a normal benign fibroadenoma, which is typical for my age, because of my melanoma history they recommended a biopsy. Thankfully my same surgeon went a step further and recommended doing a full lumpectomy, because it came back as metastatic melanoma from My original tumor. I had another surgery to have a partial mastectomy and then started immunotherapy treatment (Keytruda) every 3 weeks for a year. I am now done with treatment and deemed cancer free, though I have one more PET scan in June to confirm!
follow Casey on Instagram @throwinshadeatmelanoma
“Every cloud has a silver lining”
Casey
