#CurryStrong

Our wonderful friend and co-worker, Amber, has been diagnosed with Stage 3 Metastatic Malignant Melanoma! We, as a team at Delaware Pediatric Dentistry are rallying up to help her in her journey to beat this! She has already missed a good amount of work for doctor appointments, surgeries, and recoveries, and the medical bills keep coming! We are hoping to ease her burden as much as possible! Below is Amber’s story ❤

The first $2,500 raised, Dr. Sachin will have Amber shave his hair into a mohawk, once we reach $5,000, Amber will shave off the rest!!! We will be sure to record this and post it to our Facebook page!

Nobody ever expects to hear the words, “You have cancer.” Time seemingly stood still after that. The moments, hours, days, and even weeks that followed seemed like a blur. But let me just say, I’m so glad I didn’t ignore the changes in my body and went to the doctor.

I started having groin pain back in January. I thought I just pulled my groin. Fast forward to April 21. I woke up in the middle of the night from severe pain, I felt a mass in my groin that came on out of nowhere. I drove myself to the emergency room and the barrage of testing began. I had a scan done, I was discharged, and referred to Dr. Graffeo, an oncologist, under the impression it was a complex cyst or a tumor. Cancer was never mentioned or even on anyone’s radar.

April 26 a needle biopsy was done. Still no clear-cut answers. I had another scan done and because the mass was sitting very close to my femoral artery, another needle biopsy was not recommended. However, my surgeon suggested we just do surgery, remove the mass, and do a biopsy once the mass was removed.

May 31, I had surgery to remove the mass. Dr. Graffeo discovered it was a lymph node and it was sent off for pathology. Still cancer was never mentioned or even a thought. I’m 42, pretty healthy and very active. I’m a single parent, I have 2 kids, 2 jobs, very busy life.

June 2 my world came to a screeching halt. The lymph node came back as cancer. Metastatic malignant melanoma to be exact. I know the meaning of all those words.

I HAVE CANCER! How do I tell my kids?!

I had a conversation with Dr. Graffeo and he felt I needed more complex care, with specialists that are better suited for my care than what he could provide. He said, “Amber, I’m referring you to The James. They’re the best and you will be in great hands.” All that ran through my head was, “THE JAMES?!?!”

June 29. The reality of it all hit me. It was the day of my PET scan at The James. I was ready to puke. I wanted to come to this appointment by myself and for an instant I wished I would’ve just asked someone to be with me. I needed that day to know how to move forward. The day of my PET scan was also my appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Contreras, later that day at The James. It was a consultation to discuss the results of my PET scan and my official diagnosis, Stage 3 Metastatic Malignant Melanoma. What I thought would be a brief consultation, as most are, was an appointment that lasted 2 and a half hours with a man that listened to my questions, concerns, did a full body check for any other suspicious spots, as well as a biopsy from what we thought was the primary spot on my lower leg. He discussed how my next surgery would go and I left his office feeling a bit more relieved.

July 11, Surgery Day at The James. I had to be there early for injections before surgery. The injections turn the “bad tissue” color so while the patient is in surgery, the surgeon can be pretty confident that all the tissue that needs to be removed, can be removed, and clear margins are obtained. The plan for surgery, was to remove the primary source and any other lymph nodes. There was a high likelihood that I would need a skin graft after the primary source was removed, due to the amount of skin and tissue needing to be removed. Surgery was successful, the primary source was removed, as well as 2 additional lymph nodes, the skin graft was not needed. A drain was placed in my leg to help with draining lymphatic fluid and will stay in place until my follow up appointment on July 27. My follow up appointment, treatment will be discussed. Chemotherapy is not the suggested treatment for melanoma. However, radiation, infusion, and immunotherapy are.

A little of what I have learned up to this point about melanoma is this, our skin is our largest organ. Because I have this disease, I do not have to treat the sun like it’s evil. I have to keep doing the things I’ve already been doing, and be vigilant on yearly body checks. Keep wearing sunscreen, keep an eye out for anything changing on my body, and not get upset when someone says, “you got all of this from a mole?!” I’ve learned that there is so much awareness about so many other forms of cancer out there. I feel like there is little discussed on melanoma. But if you read anything about it, you will learn that it has a very high chance of reoccurrence. It’s the most serious form of skin cancer. Melanoma can occur anywhere on the skin, even areas without sun exposure. The average age of diagnosis is 65 but it’s the most common cancer in young adults, 30 years old or younger, most commonly in women. Approximately 106,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2021 while 7200 of those people died from melanoma. While melanoma accounts for only 1% of all skin cancers, it causes the large majority of skin cancer deaths.

I’m in for a journey. I’m prepared to fight this disease and it’s not an automatic death sentence. Each day that passes is a day that’s behind me. I don’t know what my future holds but this is my life now. I know that I have a lot of life left to live, and a ton of fight in me. For everyone that has supported me on this journey, I can’t thank you enough. If given the opportunity to ever help someone that is battling something, I will give back tenfold. I will never take this feeling for granted. Much love to you all, the love and support I have is humbling. I’m reminded every day that there are still kind, loving, generous people out there, in a seemingly selfish, fast paced world