This Mom's 'Ugly' Melanoma Experience Is Going Viral

Warning: This post contains graphic images.

This time of year, many of us are enjoying getting some extra sun — whether we choose to do it artificially in a tanning bed (please don't), or by laying out at the beach, or even inadvertently as we spend more of our weekends outdoors. But one woman's no-holds-barred Facebook post is getting a lot of attention for showing the ugly side of all that sun — melanoma.

Bethany Gambardella-Greenway has been fastidiously logging her struggle in the aftermath of a melanoma diagnosis since this time last year. This Texas mom is a fair-skinned redhead who had always had more than a few freckles, so she didn't think much of it when a particular spot on her forehead started to get more pronounced. After a fact-finding biopsy, the area was deemed to be stage III melanoma and further surgery had to be done; Bethany needed a large section of skin as well as the underlying muscle removed.

"Skin cancer is ugly," she wrote in the caption of one of her posts. "Not only have I lost my left eyebrow but I will never be able to raise its replacement." Despite her situation, Bethany was careful to keep things in perspective. "At this point it's a small price to pay to watch my girls grow up," she admitted. Later, a skin graft using skin from her thigh was added.

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Unfortunately, the initial skin grafting wasn't the end of the surgeries for Bethany. Shortly after, she received more upsetting news. "The lower half of my margins were not clear, so I need more surgery to remove part of my eyelid and more forehead skin and some skin between my eyes," she wrote, and admitted that she felt "defeated". After leagues of tests and months of worry, Bethany got the all-clear on her biopsies — but even this positive news leaves part of the story out.

In the time since her first surgery, Bethany had to stop breastfeeding her two daughters and go back on birth control, ruling out the possibility of having another child for the foreseeable future. She went to countless doctor visits, had to learn to re-apply makeup again after receiving her skin graft, endured $30,000 immunity-boosting shots, and even had to learn how to work out again after needing so much R&R time. The grueling process of radiation treatments (which made her hair fall out), liver issues, developing appendicitis, and countless other trials made this a grueling year for Bethany from start to finish.

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The good news? Bethany is officially on the mend, and her story is drawing much-needed attention to a type of skin cancer that often gets overlooked. After hundreds of posts cataloguing her cancer journey, Bethany has become a force for good, reminding her followers to make frequent dermatologist appointments and to always, always wear sun protection (the more, the better).

While Bethany certainly exposed skin cancer for what it really is — a hugely harmful, life-altering affliction that we all need to be more aware of — she also offers perspective on her journey as a whole. As Bethany put it, "During my melanoma journey I've learned things, mostly about myself and my own limitations and boundaries. I also learned about self preservation. Yes, as a mom we forget these things and put our children first. It's strange now I am forced to carve out a space for self care as well as personal boundaries. My limits are clearer now and so are my abilities to cope with life's offenses. My shell is thinner and more easily broken. Is this a weakness? No. I am stronger than I was before I started. Healing."