About Me

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I'm a Jesus loving girl who is blessed with an amazing husband and two beautiful children. At the age of 23, while pregnant with my firstborn I noticed a dome shaped nodular area on my left hip. It started growing larger and eventually started bleeding. After the birth of my baby girl and my 24th birthday I decided to get the ugly bump checked. The result was Stage III nodular Malignant Melanoma that had extensions into my lymph nodes. I completed a year of Interferon chemotherapy. a year later I became pregnant with my second child. After his birth I developed two more melanoma primary tumors-- stage 1 2010, and stage 2 in 2011. Since then I have made it my mission to advocate and educate to bring about melanoma awareness in hopes that it could save others from this deadly disease. Thankfully, I am very healthy and doing very well! I have No Evidence of Disease and I'm showing Cancer Who's Boss by staying fit and healthy. I plan to blog about my adventures in running over cancer during training for my first Full marathon Fall 2014. Remember to love your skin, protect your skin, and check your skin. Share the love and spread the chemical-free lotion!

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Vandy Update and Running adventures

Hello friends,

Sorry it's been so long since I've checked in....Things are going great!!  At my last checkup at Vanderbilt, I did have a new spot that my kids nicknamed "smiley mole", I'll post a pic below so you can see how they got the name...anyways, the new spot had some irregular vascular patterns that my Dr thought was unusual and warranted a biopsy.  Thankfully, the smiley mole was removed because the pathology came back as a moderate dysplastic melanocytic nevus (in other words, on it's way to becoming another melanoma).  Good news is, it was caught very early and my Dr excised the lesion with clear margins, so no more surgery.  I go back to Vandy in early August for another routine checkup


Smiley Mole

Biopsy Site Lt upper thigh

In other news, I ran my second half marathon (13.1 miles) with a time of 2:03 on April 6 in Xenia, OH.  It was a beautiful run with some amazing friends from my running group.  This was definitely a "shove it in cancer's face" moment :-)



Xenia Half Marathon April 6, 2014  time: 2:03




I've ran 3 5Ks since the half and hit a PR at the local Memorial Day 5K.  PRs are nice....but running means so much more than a PR. It is such a blessing to be healthy again and to have the ability to run.  It means so much more knowing what it's like to be so short of breath I couldn't hold my child, due to anemia and fatigue, and to now be able to run and not grow faint is a miracle in itself. I'm not taking this ability for granted, so I'm doing the only logical thing I know to do....I'm signing up to run a Full Marathon for Nov 2, 2014.  I have a lot of training miles ahead of me, so I plan on using this blog to keep you posted on my adventures with running over cancer.



Me and my family at the memorial day 5K...PR 26:40



Thanks for all your love, support and prayers.  Please remember to run or do outdoor activities before 10 am and after 5 pm...always share the love and spread the lotion (SPF) to those around you.

Much Love,

Alicia




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2 comments:

  1. ajsh2005June 25, 2014 at 7:17 AM

    Hi Alicia, I know we haven't seen each other since college, but I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your blog updates. I'm encouraged by your testimony and blessed at how God has used you through your battle with melanoma and how His light has shined forth bright. Reading your story and your blog updates has made me much more aware of the importance of doing skin checks and using sunscreen. I pray that God continues to bless you with good health! Good luck as you train for your first marathon! April (Garvin) Hennecke

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alicia BJuly 28, 2014 at 7:34 PM

    That means so much!!! Thank you and God bless you!!

    ReplyDelete

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