As this blog post goes live, it’s November 2016. I’m 39 years old, I’ve been married to Kathy for 8 years, Emma is 5 (going on 16) and Sam is a 2 year old superstar ball of energy.

It’s 4 years since my first visit to the GP. The misdiagnosis of the mole as a lesion and the freeze gun treatment. A number of people have said that I must be really resentful of that GP and others have even asked if I have considered taking any legal action against him for his misdiagnosis. That has never crossed my mind and I am lucky enough not to feel any resentment towards him, at the time or now. One thing I class myself as fortunate to have is a generally very positive attitude and outlook on life, despite how any of my previous posts may read! With the exception of a few low moments, my general philosophy is that there is no point wasting energy on things you can’t change. That’s obviously sometimes easier said than done but on the whole it’s an attitude that has and continues to serve me well in life. The original GP made a mistake but it was picked up 2 weeks later by my normal GP and everything then kicked into place. I could just as easily beat myself up about not going to see the GP sooner than I did when the freckle turned into a mole but again, that serves no purpose now so as my mate Hursty often says; “ain’t no point you crying about it.”

Since all the treatments stopped in May 2013, I have been officially NED. I have had and continue to have regular scans and check ups. The very first scan I had in the follow up process was another really emotionally difficult thing to deal with. The scan itself was fine. However, the minute the scan was completed, I felt that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach again. It took me completely by surprise but suddenly, there were scans on the other side of the wall to where I stood that told the radiologist if the melanoma was back or not. The sliding doors situation was resurrected, with my health on the receiving end and yet I now had to wait a week or two for those results to be confirmed. Luckily, that scan and all others have ultimately come back clear. I’ve had a couple of scans that have shown up areas of concern that have then required further scans and investigations but those have proved to be clear so as we stand, it’s all good. Now that it’s more than three years since the last treatment, the check ups are down to every six months as opposed to every three months which is a move in the right direction. In about 18 months, I will be signed off by Mr W. Whilst I’ll still be very much keeping an eye on things myself and doing my own little checks on lymph node areas, I’ll be as close as I get to being over everything.

As I’ve said before, the term NED is a strange one to deal with. Whilst part of me feels that my melanoma story is not yet over, I also try to remember that I could already have had my last interaction with this horrible disease. Regardless of whether it’s going to rear it’s ugly head again or not, worrying about it won’t change what’s going to happen in the future, so there’s no point worrying my pretty little self about it….said no-one ever, but I’m not going to worry about it. Well not too much anyway.

Thanks very much for reading.