CJ Weiss, 45, of Canal Winchester, Ohio, thought the red lump on his thigh was harmless — until it started growing. Turns out he actually had melanoma, the rarest and most dangerous type of skin cancer. Here’s his story, as told to senior health writer Katie Camero.
In the summer of 2019, I noticed a spot on the outside of my thigh. I thought it was a mosquito bite At first — nothing too unusual for that time of year. It was a little itchy and red, but I didn’t really think anything of it. As time went on, though, it started to get a little brown on top, and that’s when I figured it might be some kind of ugly mole.
But this “mosquito bite” started growing in a way that a normal insect bite never does. It got bigger over the course of three months, and by the time I started to get really worried, the spot was probably about half an inch in diameter and protruding from my skin. Then it started bleeding; I knew at that moment that I needed to consult a dermatologist AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
The doctors didn’t seem too alarmed, but I could tell they were intrigued. They removed the mole and sent it for a biopsy. My husband and I were preparing to travel to Spain the following week, but those plans quickly changed after I got a call from the oncology office about three days after my appointment. I had melanoma, and they said I needed surgery immediately. The person on the phone said they would schedule the procedure for the following week, but when I told them I was going on vacation, their exact words were, “Honey, you don’t want to wait because you might not survive if you take that trip.”
At that point, I started to panic and get emotional because I didn’t think it was that serious. I had never had any type of cancer before; I had never needed to see a dermatologist before. Well, more tests showed that my cancer had spread so quickly that while I was ignoring that “mosquito bite,” it had already spread to a lymph node in my groin. We canceled our trip and I went in for emergency surgery, which left me with a six-inch scar on my leg.
Over the next four years, I received infusion therapy (which consists of drugs given intravenously that help the immune system recognize and fight cancer cells), ultrasounds, and CT scans to make sure the cancer didn’t come back or spread to other organs. Thankfully, I remained cancer-free and still am today, but I have to monitor my skin and be vigilant for the rest of my life.
My oncologists asked me if I was exposed to too much sun when I was younger, and I was. always that little shirtless boy mowing the lawn or playing in the woods. And although some types of sunscreens When it was around when I was a kid, people didn’t really know that it could drastically reduce your risk of skin cancer, so I didn’t use it much. As a healthy 40-year-old, I didn’t think a lump on my leg could take me out permanently. I started thinking about mortality, my family, the “what ifs.” Like, what if it comes back? What if the cancer moves to my heart or my lungs? When I was in surgery, my family came to town, and all these intense emotions made me wonder if I could have prevented this. Was this my fault?