Melanoma; It's Tough Enough

Every guest of the Hotel Melanoma cringes when hearing the phrase “it’s just skin cancer”. I heard it from well-meaning friends who hadn’t a clue why I was doing multiple rounds of inpatient biochemotherapy. Looking back to that time, I now think I did a disservice to the melanoma community by banning all hospital visitors. At the time, my wife and I thought we were doing the right thing by sparing family and friends from seeing the alarming visuals of the treatment. Now I realize that I might’ve scared a few people into practicing safe sun had I not hidden from public view. And demonstrated to a few people that melanoma really IS cancer, with treatments that are every bit as ugly as those performed for “real” cancers. I guess that’s why I so admire all the bad ass melanoma warriors who’ve shed their privacy and shared a photographic record of their battles with this beast.

For all of you BAMW’s, here’s a new version of The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ “Tuff Enough”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIhlOjmwHXU


We will block our child from sun tans with ‘screen
Ain't no doubt about it Black C it's you we AIM to seize
We’ve wrestled with some dyin’, hope the public cares
It's black’s time baby, pink we don't wear

Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff

For you Black C we would swim in ‘screen
Nothing docs’d do to you that's too tuff for we
We'll call out those burning salons with our bloggin’ harsh words
And not even worry about dishing dirt

Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff


We'll treat twenty four hours, seven days a week
Just so we can go home and end C’s streak
We’ll fight you in the morning and we’ll fight you at noon
We’ll fight you all the night and make Black Cancer swoon

Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff

We’ll lay in the sights of radiation that C’s earned
And not even worry about getting burned
We’ll drown the entire state in ‘screen, fight insurance with pleas
Just to have you Black C run and flee

Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff

Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff
Ain't that tuff enuff