Beware the savage sun!
5 warning signs that melanoma has spread
Whether it was an unusual mole, lump, blemish, or just a minor change in the way an area of the skin looks or feels, do not ignore it and get your skin checked immediately.
Here are 5 alarming signs that melanoma has spread to different parts of your body.
1. Enlarged tumours
The size of the tumour doesn’t necessarily indicate the stage of melanoma cancer. Normally, tumours at this stage are thicker and are about four millimetres deep in the skin.
However, the American Joint Commission on cancer says that a tumour size cannot be always the best indicator that can tell us how much cancer has spread and in which stage it is, as many times while treatment the tumour shrinks but cancer still metastasised.
2. Swollen lymph nodes
Lymph nodes function as filters of the body fluids and fight infection. So, a stage 4 of melanoma in this part of the body is easier to feel than to see. If melanoma cancer has travelled from the original site to the nearby lymph nodes, they become either matted or joined together.
And if you try to touch or press on them, you will feel how hard, lumpy, and swollen they are. Again, only a doctor can tell what’s going on there. So, don’t freak out. The sooner you go for a checking, the better.
3. Difficulty breathing
When melanoma is spread in the body, it does give signs. Those signs are the symptoms that your body shows as a response and a reaction to what’s happening wrong.
If you, for instance, feel the pain on the right side of your stomach and more specifically under your lower ribs, this may be interpreted as a sign that cancer cells have reached your liver.
Other additional symptoms that point out that the liver is affected are the poor or loss of appetite, a buildup fluid in the tummy (the abdomen), and yellowing of the skin and the white of the eyes.
Melanoma can have the weirdest symptoms that you might never think about. It can spread to the bones and cause their weakness. Your bones literally become too weak and fragile that they tend to break easily even after a minor injury.
In addition, the patient may also feel a continuous pain that many people who have gone through it describe as gnawing and discomfort in the bones.
6. General symptoms
