Janet Frega survived skin cancer | melanoma | stage zero in situ melanoma

DESCRIPTION

When it comes to minimizing a cancer journey, early detection is key, and Janet Frega, it was a difference-maker.  On today’s @CancerInterviews podcast, we will hear how Janet, with the aid of her daughter, detected a spot that turned into a diagnosis of skin cancer.  Thanks to early detection, the diagnosis was stage zero in situ melanoma.  It was immediately addressed, and Jane achieved survivorship.

Janet Frega lives in Oradell, New Jersey, but in 2017, she found herself in Ann Arbor, Michigan, attending her daughter’s graduation from nursing school at the University of Michigan.  While Janet was in her hotel room and wearing a sleeveless dress, her daughter noticed a spot on the back of one of her arms and said as soon as Janet got home, she should get it checked out. 

Janet visited a dermatologist who saw the spot and said a biopsy was needed.  It was performed and Janet was told to return in a week.  When she came back, Janet was asked by a nurse how the spot was found, and Janet related the story of her daughter finding it.  That when the nurse told Janet, “That’s a good thing because if she hadn’t found it, you might not be here in a year.” 

The dermatologist entered the room and said the biopsy had revealed melanoma, but that Janet was fortunate.  The diagnosis was stage zero in situ melanoma, which means the cancer had not penetrated the epidermis, so it was contained in the top layer.  She did say, however, that it had to be removed, and that it could be done right in the office.   Her arm was numbed and cut the spot’s area and went deep to ensure clean margins.  The operation’s scar was far bigger than the spot. 

Post-op tests indicated there would be no need for additional procedures or treatment.  However, Janet did have to go in for checkups every three months for the next two years, then once every six months and eventually once a year. 

Janet Frega is extremely grateful for the life-saving action of her daughter, which came after she had not been to a dermatologist in more than two years.

Janet and her husband go to the beach in South Carolina every summer, but she is sure to put on sunscreen, sit under an umbrella and she wears a hat. 

By way of advice, Janet says to regularly visit a dermatologist, and between visits if you notice something unusual on her skin to bring it to the doctor’s attention.

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: Greetings, and welcome to the @CancerInterviews podcast.  I’m your host, Bruce Morton.  There are instances on Cancer Interviews in which we beat the drum for the importance of early detection, and how it can ease one’s cancer journey.  This is one of those times.  Our guest is Janet Frega of Oradell, New Jersey.  She survived a form of skin cancer, and she did so because it was alertly spotted, and after it was spotted, she took action.  So, now let’s get started, and Janet, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Janet Frega: Thanks, Bruce and I appreciate you having me on.

BM: Wonderful.  We’re glad you here, and the first thing we want to do is the first thing we always do and that’s giving you a chance for us to get to know you better, exclusive of your cancer journey.  So, if you would, tell us about where you grew up, what your life’s work has been, what you enjoy doing with your leisure time, that sort of thing.

JF: I grew up in Potomac, Maryland, which is right outside Washington, D.C.  I have three sisters, one an identical twin and I have a brother.  I went to college in North Carolina and that’s how I got involved in my career path.  I majored in Communications.  I was a diehard sports fan, and I worked for a radio station down there.  Eventually I ended up at ABC Radio Sports in New York in the early 1980s and was a Senior Producer there.  From there I went to WFAN Radio in New York as a Senior Producer when that first went on the air, then ended up back at ABC.  I covered numerous Olympics, Super Bowls, horse racing, it ran the gamut.  I love sports, it was my dream job, I enjoyed it.  From there, I ended up getting married.  I met my husband when I was in college, and we reconnected when I moved to New York.  So, we got married, I had two daughters, one is a surgical trauma ICU nurse, and my other daughter is a special education teacher with a Master’s in Educational Leadership in North Carolina.  My husband and I are now empty nesters, we live in Oradell, which is right outside of New York City, and I am retired.  I worked in sports broadcasting, but then after my daughters were born, I retired from that and ended up being a teacher’s aide at a nursery school for 16 years.  I taught two-and-a-half-year-olds and three-year-olds and four-year-olds.  I eventually retired from that.  My husband still works, like I said, we are empty nesters, and enjoying life right now.

BM: Two questions.  Number one, if you could think back to your time at ABC and being involved with a lot of major events, including the Olympics, is there any one of them that rises to the top as the biggest thrill, looking back at that time?

JF: I think it was my experience at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.  It was the first time I had traveled outside of the United States, and to go to Yugoslavia was pretty incredible, and it was my first Olympics I had covered and the first Olympics ABC had covered on a high scale, so it was one of my most memorable experiences at ABC, I think we all really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun, and from there we did the other ones, but I guess when it’s your first one, it’s always really special, so that’s the one that stands out as the highlight for my time at ABC.

BM: And if I recall about those Olympics, there were certain air quality issues, yes?

JF: Oh, yes, because everybody over there smoked.  You had that, and there were major snowstorms that we had to deal with.  I think it was like the second day we were there, and we were prepping for the games to start and there was a major blizzard, we all got snowed in.  We had to figure out how to get around, and so forth, but it was really special.  I recently found the photo albums from all my Olympics, saw the pictures from Sarajevo, and it was fun to rehash all of that.  Overall, ABC was a special time for all of us.

BM: Now let me ask you about toddlers.  What’s the biggest challenge when it comes to teaching them?

JF: Well, they’re toddlers and they have a mind of their own, but it was fun.  I enjoyed it, I love kids.  It was something I just happened to fall into, it wasn’t something I was looking for.  My children both went to this nursery school, and after they went to elementary school, the nursery school was looking for somebody to work part time, so they asked me if I would fill in and I did.  It ended up becoming a fulltime position and I ended up staying a lot longer than I anticipated, but it was fun, I really enjoyed it.  The kids were great.  The four-year-olds I really liked.  That’s when they become self-sufficient and want to do everything on their own, but the younger ones are adorable because whatever they want to say comes out of their mouth.  It was a good transition for me to find something to do after I was finished with broadcasting.

BM: As for your diagnosis, what year was that?

JF: It was 2017.

BM: Just before that, would you say you were in good health?

JF: I am an asthmatic, so I have always had respiratory issues, so that wasn’t something new, but had no major injuries.  I had some hip issues that I needed surgery on, but that was about it.  I had nothing else that I was worried about. 

BM: So, let’s just move ahead to the time something potentially cancerous was spotted.  How did that happen?  How was it spotted?

JF: It is very interesting.  So, my oldest daughter, who is the ICU nurse, went to the University of Michigan.  My husband and I were up in Ann Arbor for her graduation.  I was sitting in the hotel room on the bed with this sleeveless shirt on.  My daughter was sitting on the other bed, she looked over at me and said, “What is that on your arm?”  She saw something on the very back of my arm, and said, “When you get home, you have got to check this checked out.”  I asked what it was, and she said I needed to get it checked out and she asked when was the last time I was at the dermatologist.  I said I was going to the dermatologist every year, but around 2015, my father became very ill, and I didn’t go as often.  She repeated I needed to get this checked out.  So, we went to graduation, we had a great time, we came home, she came home while waiting for a job to begin at Johns Hopkins.  As soon as I got home, she started bugging me about calling the dermatologist, so I made an appointment and went to see the dermatologist.  I went in and she informed me that I hadn’t been there in almost two years and asked if I had any concerns.  That’s when I told her about this spot on the back of my arm that I would like her to look at.  She looked at it and said the spot should get a biopsy.  I wasn’t overly concerned about it.  I wasn’t worried.  They did the biopsy, then told me to come back in a week.  I was set to come back a week later, but the day before the appointment I got a call from the doctor and she said she just wanted to make sure I was coming in, because “We need to talk.”  I hung up the phone and thought that didn’t sound too good.  So, the next day I go to the appointment.  The nurse comes in and she asks how I found the spot.  I told it was my daughter who just graduated from nursing school, she’s the one who found it.  The nurse then said, “Well, that’s a good thing because if she hadn’t found it, you might not be here in a year.”  This is before the doctor had even come in, and I was shocked that the nurse had even said that to me.  She said the doctor would be in momentarily, and right then I knew this would be something serious.  So, the doctor came in and said, yes, it was melanoma, but that I was very fortunate, it was Stage Zero in Situ, which means that it had not penetrated the epidermis, so it was all contained on the top layer.  She said, however, that it had to be removed.  She said they would sure to get the clean margins for testing and so forth.  So, I was relieved in that respect, that it was caught very early, but when you hear the word ‘cancer’, it was scary.  The next week, I had to go into another office and another doctor did the surgery.  She did it right in the office.  They numb your arm. She had to cut the area and go way deep to get the clean margins.  The size of this spot was quite small, but there was a much bigger scar so they could get the clean margins.  Luckily, the tests came back good, so I didn’t have anything to worry about in terms of additional procedures or any more treatment.  But they did tell me I had to get checked every three months for the next two years and that eventually you go six months and then eventually once a year.  So, early detection is key, I cannot thank my daughter enough, she saved my life.  I told her she hadn’t passed the nursing boards yet and she’d already saved my life, so it’s just amazing how it all happened, how she spotted it because I never would have seen it, it was so far back on my arm.

BM: Through all this, you sounded pretty unflappable, or was there an instance in which you were mentally or emotionally, you needed support from your husband, Bud, or anybody else?

JF: They were great about it.  I came home and told them I had had a biopsy, and I really didn’t think much of it.  I had been to the dermatologist after a two-year absence, but it wasn’t until I got into the doctor’s office and they told me it was melanoma, that I thought maybe I should be more scared.  Then I was told it was Stage Zero, I was kind of relieved.  I mean, my daughter, the nurse, said she had a very close friend whose father died of melanoma when they were in high school.  Their family has a foundation, she would run in their race every year and I walked it.  We would do things for their foundation, but you never think it is going to hit you.  So, I am very thankful that I caught it early enough, and early detection, my doctor said it is so, so important because if catch it early, it’s a game-changer.  Now I make sure I am on schedule in terms of my appointments.

BM: It sounds like you, for lack of a better word, are policing the situation yourself.  While you don’t want to argue with a nurse, it sounds like there are no external forces that are getting you to the doctor.  You are doing that on your own, it sounds like.

JF: The doctor said, “You need to be here every three months.”  But when she said I reached the point in which I only had to come in every six months, I was kind of nervous about that, as my appointments were kind of a security blanket, because I was thinking if they find something, everything will be okay.  Now I am really observant about my skin.  One other thing.  After my diagnosis, my daughters had to go in and get a baseline exam because this can be hereditary, and I had to notify all my siblings, and they had to tell their doctors that I had been diagnosed.  I also had to notify all my doctors, my gynecologist, my primary care, my dentist, any doctor that saw me, I had to let them know, too, to put it on my chart.

BM: Were your daughters good about going in to get checked up?

JF: Yeah, they were great about it.  We go the beach every summer down in South Carolina.  I was diagnosed in June 2017, and we went to the beach in July, and I said to my doctor I am really nervous, but she told me I would be okay and that I needed to wear sunscreen, and you need to keep reapplying it.  You can’t sit out there and think one application is going to cover you for the day.  She also said I should stay under an umbrella and wear a hat.  I will say on previous trips to the beach, was I diligent about reapplying sunscreen through the course of the day?  No, I wasn’t.  Did I always wear a hat?  No, not always.  It was actually my husband who was always under the umbrella and always wearing a hat, always applying the sunscreen and so forth.  My daughters I had to remind them to put on the sunscreen, but all of us, we were not diligent about applying it all the time.  But in July 2017, I stayed under the umbrella, I had a hat on, and I was constantly applying sunscreen.  My daughter asked if I was ever going to come out from under the umbrella, but when I did, I wore a shirt.  That first summer, I was constantly reminding my kids to apply that sunscreen, everywhere, face, hands, everywhere.  I would make sure someone would put it on me, so I wasn’t missing any spots.

BM: You had talked about your daughters going in for a checkup.  What about your sisters?

JF: All my sisters and my brothers that had been going to a dermatologist on a regular basis.  They told me to notify my mother, who at the time was 89, and said she wasn’t going to make a special trip to the dermatologist, but she always stays in the house, but for everyone else in the family, they were good about seeing the dermatologist and notifying their various doctors.  As for me, I even wear makeup with SPF.

BM: Speaking of makeup with SPF, do you get the feeling that a lot of women specify such makeup?

JF: I think a lot of makeup now has SPF in it because of all the awareness of skin cancer, taking care of your skin, that type of thing.  You can find it anywhere where makeup is sold.  It’s very important.  My doctor said if you can find, wear it, and make sure you have it on. 

BM: I think the answer to this yes/no question is probably a ‘no,’ but I will ask it anyway.  When you had the spot, did that necessitate the prescribing of any medication?  Or was the procedure pretty much done when the spot was removed?

JF: They removed it and it was stitched up, so I had a huge bandage on my arm, and it had to be changed every couple of hours, so luckily my daughter the nurse was at home at the time, and she was taking care of it.  But they told me I was going to need to change it so they told me to go get band aids, but even the big band aids weren’t big enough because the scar was rather large for such a tiny spot.  Anyway, I just took Tylenol or Advil for the pain.  I had to go back to the doctor just to make sure it was healing properly, but I have a scar there and it reminds me every day how lucky I am that I was able to catch it early and not have to go through any treatments for it, just have the spot removed and taking care of my skin and going to the dermatologist.

BM: Janet, perhaps wittingly, perhaps unwittingly, you have underscored an operative word that we cancer survivors use and that is that we ‘survive’ cancer as opposed to ‘beating’ it, because you don’t know when it can come back and you are certainly passing along that message that even though you got this spot removed, you can never become complacent or think that you have it beat, so that’s a good thing that you go back to the doctor and you want to go back with regularity.

JF: Right.  You want to be very proactive about it, and you want to make sure, and my daughters, my siblings are all very proactive about it.  My husband, as I said, he is always the one lathering up with the sunscreen, with the hat, he is always wearing a shirt, etc., so I think everybody needs to be more proactive about it.  As for me, I cannot be complacent because I was Stage Zero.

BM: Janet, we are going to wrap up now, and my final question is one in which I am 99 percent sure I already know the answer, and the answer might be a bit redundant, but that’s okay because this is something that cannot be overstated.  If you had a private audience with someone who learned they might be diagnosed with a form of skin cancer, what would you tell them?

JF: Well, I think being proactive about it, seeing your doctor, taking the necessary precautions, it is just so important.  I was fortunate.  Mine wasn’t so serious that I had to undergo treatments.  It is key to listen to your doctors, but also listen to yourself.  If you see something that doesn’t look right, even if you are not sure, bring it up and ask them about it, because you never know.  I always point out spots and there could be lots of them.  I am not embarrassed by that, I don’t worry about it, and my dermatologist always wants me to err on the side of caution.  She says if something needs to be removed, it will be removed.  Listen to yourself and make sure to take a good look at your body, what you can see, and notice if something looks abnormal, and then bring it up with your doctor.

BM: Janet, and that can result in the two most important words in our conversation: Early Detection. 

JF: That’s what made the difference in my case.  Again, I think my daughter for noticing the spot, because who knows if I would have ever seen it on my own. 

BM: Okay, that’s it for this segment.  We really appreciate your time.  Thanks so much for a message will always be timely.  I guess we can call it a timeless message, the importance of early detection.  Again, Janet, thanks so much.

JF: Bruce, thanks so much for having me and have a great day.

BM: You, too, Janet.  We hope that what you heard can help the cancer journey for you or a friend or a loved one.  Until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Janet Frega, Skin Cancer Survivor – Oradell, New Jersey, USA

A beneficiary of early detection, Janet Frega is a survivor of skin cancer. 

Early detection came from her daughter who had just completed nursing school.  Janet’s daughter noticed a spot on her mom’s arm and urged her to see a dermatologist.  A subsequent biopsy revealed in a diagnosis of Stage Zero in Situ Melanoma, calling for the area around the spot to be surgically removed.

Going forward, Janet is quite diligent about taking proper precautionary measures when she spends time in the sun and makes sure her family does as well.

Additional Resources:

Website:  www.CancerInterviews.com - click here

Time Stamps:

07:35 Says her daughter noticed an unusual spot on Janet’s arm.

09:20 Dermatologist told Janet she should get a biopsy.

10:53 Biopsy result.

11:40 Janet describes her surgical procedure.

23:28 Janet is asked if she needed medication after the procedure.

27:52 Importance of making all post-treatment doctor appointments.

KEYWORDS (tags):

skin cancer

cancer

melanoma

cancer interviews

stage zero in situ melanoma

cancerinterviews.com

bruce morton

janet frega