Marcie Kelly
It was the beginning of August 2013, I had just lost my “Pampa” aka grandpa, to pancreatic cancer in June. My three boys and my husband, who is a teacher, were gearing up for a new school year. Our oldest was starting middle school and was excited to have his dad as his teacher. Life was great and busy! Until one day I noticed the mole on my back that has been there since birth was looking really ugly. I am not a health care professional by any means, but I know enough that when you have a mole change, you need to get it looked at ASAP.
So I got into my dermatologist closer to the end of August and she thought it didn’t look like anything too concerning but let’s not risk it. She encouraged me to get it removed…I’m not a fan of needles so she really did have to convince me and I’m thankful that she did. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here today writing this if she hadn’t encouraged me to remove it. Less than two weeks from removal and I get a phone call from the Dermatology office to discuss the pathology results. Now here it is middle of September, it’s almost 5pm in the evening, I’m in the middle of cooking for three hungry boys who are fighting at the kitchen island, our A/C in the house isn’t working so I’m also trying to get a hold of a maintenance company to come out and fix it AND my husband was just leaving the school and wasn’t home yet when I received this call. It’s Crystal, she is my angel, the one who encouraged me to remove it. She proceeds to tell me that the results came back as melanoma and her office was going to call the General Surgeon the following day to get me in for a wide excision. If anyone remembers how the parents sounded from the comic series Peanuts…. would know that I didn’t hear or retain any information she just told me. All I heard was melanoma and surgery. Crystal could tell I was upset and said she would call me tomorrow to talk more about it but it was time we act fast. AND that’s exactly what happened.
I was told on a Thursday night I had melanoma, the following Wednesday at 8pm I was on the operating table removing a huge chunk from my backside and lymph nodes in my right armpit. This new journey I was on was going really fast and my mind couldn’t keep up… I was still stuck on the phone call that I had melanoma. Fear, panic and anxiety set in! Have you ever literally got down on your knees and prayed to God to heal you? Give your life to Him and have him be your healer…. when you are a control freak like me… that’s the hardest thing to do, and I spent a lot of time on my knees praying for Him to heal me. Cancer is definitely something we can’t control. I could have prevented it by wearing sunscreen but I didn’t know you could get a deadly form of cancer by not wearing sunscreen, I just thought you got horrible sun spots and sagging skin when you didn’t wear sunscreen. I WAS WRONG!!
So after my first surgery, which was on a Wednesday evening, the following Monday we got the horrible news that it had metastasis to my lymph nodes and I was to be back in surgery that Thursday for more removal of lymph nodes and then off to see an Oncologist. Now let me tell you…at the age of 33 I NEVER thought I would be seeing an Oncologist. A few days after my second surgery we found ourselves sitting in a waiting room full of cancer patients, and it was scary. I wanted to run right out of that building, I wanted my life back before that phone call. I was so happy cooking for my three boys who were fighting in a very hot house…I’d give anything back for life before cancer. Cause once you get cancer… your life changes forever.
So I met my oncologist and his team… (I like to call them my Cheerleaders) this team of professionals kept me from falling. From my oncologist who has seen me at my worst moments, crying hysterically cause I thought I was going to die! To my “chemo” nurses who would look me straight in the eyes and tell me I was fine that day. To the nurse who mixes the “chemo” would encourage me not to stop and don’t miss any doses, each dose are an army of weapons keeping the cancer at bay! And let me not forget to mention that all around this beautiful country were people praying for me! Sometimes I joke that so many people were praying for me, God was saying “OK, OK, OK… Marcie Kelly, you are healed.”
That entire year of Immunotherapy was horrible. The first month my mom would travel from Colorado and take me to treatment every day except weekends. She would clean house while I slept and then go pick up the boys from school. She was a life-saver for me. Because of her, my husband was able to continue to teach and be at school with the boys. We wanted that for them, if dad wasn’t there they felt anxious about what was going on with me. For 11 months after the first month of daily IV infusions I was able to take my treatments at home through injections every other day. It felt like I had the flu and I spent most of my evenings in bed watching movies with my husband and boys. I disconnected from the world due to depression, I was tired of feeling sick, I was tired of the anxiety, I was just tired of the thought that my Stage 3b Metastatic Melanoma was going to progress into Stage 4. I WAS TIRED AND MAD AT THE WORLD! BUT Somehow, we made it work and we fought through it together. And now I will be 7 years out on October 21st 2020!!! I’m grateful that I am still here…. and I will never take life for granted ever again!
