Reporter Chronicles Her Personal Battle with Melanoma
Stacey Escalante is a wife, a mother of two and a news reporter at KVBC-T.V. Last June she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. She is sharing her experience with the hope that others will learn from her mistakes. This is her story.
They say the date you’re told you have cancer is a date that you’ll never forget— and they’re right.
June 22, 2005, my life changed forever. I was diagnosed with stage III malignant melanoma. It turns out the small mole on my lower back was a malignant tumor and the cancer spread to a lymph node in my groin.
At the time of my diagnosis I had no idea that skin cancer could be “cancer.” My husband and I thought doctors would just cut it out and we’d move on. But that wasn’t the case. That’s when the emotional roller coaster began.
My son Will was two and my daughter Gabriella was only six months. Inside I was thinking this couldn’t be happening, but it was and we had to deal with it. I say “we” because my husband Matt, my parents, my siblings, my friends and my Channel 3 family were affected by my cancer.
I had two surgeries in two months. One was at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in California, home to some of the country’s best melanoma experts. I was there for seven weeks laying flat on my back with my leg up so the fluid would drain. Matt, who has been my rock, would bring the kids on weekends to see me. But I would sob every Monday when they left. My children were becoming less attached to me and it broke my heart. Now, less than a year later, my life is almost like it used to be, only better. I’m taking care of my kids again. I’m back at Channel 3 reporting the news three days a week. A former marathoner, I’m even running every now and then. I’m hiking, camping and even water-skiing (with proper sun protection of course). I don’t just live my life, I truly love it.
Since my diagnosis I know that I better appreciate the healthy moments because they can be taken away in an instant. Just like Lance Armstrong says, cancer may leave your body, but it never leaves your life. I don’t dwell on it, but I don’t ignore it. I can’t. Besides skin checks, CT scans and PET scans every 3 months, I am on a regimen of subcutaneous injections of GM-CSF for the next two years. The hope is to boost my immune system to kill any cancer that could be hiding in my body. That’s the part that gets to me sometimes. I wonder if it will come back. It did in my dad’s case. He is a two-time survivor of prostate cancer.
If caught early, skin cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable cancers. Mine may have been caused by genetics but there’s also a good chance it came from the sun. I was a sun worshipper. I didn’t wear sunscreen as a rule. For years I went to a tanning salon because I couldn’t stand to be pale in the winter. Now when I see someone with a tan I cringe. Please tell your friends, tell your family to wear proper sunscreen. Get checked by a dermatologist. If I made routine skin checks a part of my life I wouldn’t be writing this article.
No one wants cancer, but it has brought so many good people into my life. And it showed me how much I need the people who were already in it, most importantly, my husband. His devotion is overwhelming. Between the births of our two children and my illness, in only four years of marriage, we’ve been through a lifetime of change. They say every year that goes by without a recurrence, you should celebrate.
Believe me, on June 22, 2006, we will be celebrating.
Stacey Escalante
sescalante@kvbc.com
