Melanoma

It Started with a Freckle

By: David L. Stanley

Narrated by: David L. Stanley

With Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle, David L. Stanley invites you to join him on an inside tour of his cancer. You'll travel with Stanley from the dimly lit and elegantly decorated office of the dermatologist to the fluorescent glare of the operating room theater and back to the workplace as he faces up to melanoma, the only major cancer that has seen its incidence rise since 2000, with humor, humility, and a deep understanding of the disease borne of research and science. In a memoir that speaks to anyone who has bumped up against a major health scare, Stanley offers up an engaging primer on how to finesse a path through cancer - the boogeyman under everyone's bed - with gravity and wit and honor.

©2016 David L. Stanley (P)2016 David L. Stanley

Lots of good information in humorous format

Cancer isn't funny but those of us fighting that battle have to remain positive and in good humor. For anyone recently diagnosed or perhaps in denial regarding melanoma, this book spells it all out from a first person perspective. I hope to use information and this approach when I'm able to share my story. Like Mr Stanley I want to turn all 'this' into something positive.

Not my cup of coffee.

This book will suit people with a similar sense of humour as the author. Living with melanoma, I am after technical information on the condition.
This is more the story of a self obsessed man and the roller coaster ride of him going from one panic attack to another. Rather exhausting, even for someone such as myself, who has remained calm through my diagnosis.
It doesn't cover melanoma in it's many forms, only the author's condition and the minutia of his life. The emotional effect on a highly strung individual makes heavy going. I feel for the stoic healthcare individuals who had to deal with Mr Stanley losing his grip.
Did listen to the end and hope Mr Stanley doesn't have a reoccurrence, but in the end feel I would have been better off not reading most of this.
The helpful information, I can use, could be condensed into one or two chapters at most. The appendix gave references but are probably mostly useful before you get melanoma and to get young folks to use sun protection, or better, to stay out of the sun.
Mr Stanley is a teacher, he describes a lesson he gave to his class on his condition. He could be a candidate to do a YouTube video on the subject, to spread the "skin cancer" message. There is some good information on YouTube and the sites he notes in the appendix.