IMPORTANT PSA:



If my doctor hadn’t have randomly spotted an unusual mole on my arm, I may have lost my life. This is for real. Please, if you are reading this - take this as a sign to go for a “body check” at your doctor/dermatologist for skin cancer. 

This is why I’ve been quiet in the last few weeks: It was a small mole. A freckle kind of thing. The size of the tip of a q-tip. I love moles. I grew up loving Marilyn Monroe and Sherilyn Fenn and Cindy Crawford. I always thought moles were sexy, mysterious, sensual. …until my incredible doctor, Dr. Ilyse Lefkowicz noticed it, took action and saved my life. 

After she took it off in a small surgery in her office, the sample came back as “malignant melanoma”. The second I heard the news, I googled the exact definition. Webster’s dictionary says: “malignant: medical: very serious and dangerous: tending or likely to grow and spread in a rapid and uncontrolled way that can cause death.”

I was booked into emergency surgery at NYU’s Langone Hospital in NYC with Dr. Richard Shapiro. It was supposed to be a small surgery to cut out any cancer in my tissues. Once I was in the operating room and my arm was opened - it had spread more than was originally thought. A small, half of a dime size spot turned into a 6 inch deep opening on my arm, going upward on my arm towards my fingers to get it all, in over an hour of surgery. 

Then - the waiting began. It would take a week to find out if it was all out and safe or if I would need to decide on further treatments. I got really lucky. I just found out that Dr Richard Shapiro got it ALL and I am 100% clear of cancer. Yesterday at the post-op appointment, the doctor said that I was lucky that Dr.  Lefkowicz caught it and he was able to save my right hand!!!

At the moment, my fingers are a bit numb, but I am typing this with tears of joy after just getting off the phone with Dr Lefkowicz and thanking her for saving my life. 

I am sharing this story because this is what malignant melanoma looks like if it is caught early! Don’t wait to get a body check. Please. Make the appointment today. This is a sign.

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