Jon Ziska’s Melanoma Story

Guest blog post by Jon Ziska, melanoma thriver and advocate:

“My Melanoma Journey began with a “normal wellness check” AKA annual physical. I was in the doctor’s office, and he said upon looking at my chest, “you might consider getting this mole looked at, I can recommend a dermatologist”. I thought okay, sounds good, let me get it checked out. I had had a couple of precancerous moles removed previously and didn’t give it much thought. Well, in explaining how I came into the dermatologist’s office at my appointment, I shared what the doctor had said. She said, “I’m not at all concerned about that one, but this one we’re doing a biopsy on today itself”. At that point I got a little bit nervous to be honest. After several days, I was in the parking lot of one of my clients when I received the THE PHONE CALL. “You have melanoma cancer, and we need to schedule an appointment to have it removed”. I still at the time was not overly shocked, as it didn’t sink in. After a few moments when speaking with my customer, I realized that I was talking gibberish, it hit. I quickly apologized and explained to them the phone call that I just had. That was February 5th, 2019. I was fortunate; it was diagnosed and treated early and had not metastasized. That put me on a vigilant routine of checking my body and Dermatological full body scans every 3 months. Lo and behold on 9/11/2020 (I’m from NY), I had another malignant melanoma diagnosed. Again, thanks to regular, and I mean very regular skin checks, it was caught before it metastasized.  

If I had to guess, my Malignant Melanoma’s (again there were two) were expedited due to sun damage from tanning, some quite intentional, some just by not wearing skin protection (unintentional). 

During my teen years, my sister (Janean) and I would bake on the roof of our home on Long Island. We also went to the beach quite often. I had gotten numerous sunburns and then eventually that “base tan” (which we all know is a sign of sun damage). I had numerous peelings, and several bubbling sunburns. Once in the Bahamas, I went out, “just for a short while” unprotected and without sunscreen. I got sun poisoning on my feet, they swelled up, and it was terribly painful. Both Melanoma’s were on my chest… 

My first summer was literally a bit scary for me to be out in the sun. I have always been a very, very avid outdoorsman; hiking, surfing, fishing etc. I know that sun damage is cumulative, but I was still freaked out to be outside at a beach or an exposed mountain while hiking. 

I have since gotten over “my fears” of being outside in the sun, I just prepare differently and better for it with hats, sun shirts and of course sunscreen. 

The point of the story is WEAR SUNSCREEN & protective clothing.  

Your skin is your largest organ, protect it. 

I am a proponent of sharing my story and reminding people of the importance of sunscreen and Dermatological skin checks.”