{"id":8592,"date":"2024-11-15T20:26:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T20:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/?p=8592"},"modified":"2025-05-13T12:17:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:17:20","slug":"melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was just 25 years old, I was diagnosed with melanoma. I fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease, which spread to my brain, lung, uterus, kidneys and spine. I share my story of survival to urge everyone to check their skin regularly and to see a dermatologist if something doesn\u2019t look or feel right. Skin cancer can be deadly, and early detection can save your life.<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s why I am a strong advocate for The Skin Cancer Foundation\u2019s Destination Healthy Skin<\/a> program. I have volunteered at the RV and have seen firsthand how this program saves lives through early detection.<\/p>\n

My First Melanoma \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2006, I had a dark mole under my left forearm that itched all the time. When it started to bleed, I made an appointment with a dermatologist.<\/p>\n

My doctor performed a deep shave biopsy on the mole and mentioned it might be skin cancer. With my 3-year-old daughter and husband sitting next to me, all I could focus on was the word \u201ccancer.\u201d Before this moment, skin cancer had never crossed my mind. I was busy caring for my family and just thought it was an itchy mole.<\/p>\n

It took four weeks to confirm my diagnosis. I had stage IIA malignant melanoma, which meant the cancer was local but could have spread to my lymph nodes. After additional testing, I was relieved to learn that the melanoma had not spread, and I was in the clear.<\/p>\n

That relief only lasted two years.<\/p>\n

My Recurrence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

During those two years, I joyfully gave birth to my second daughter. I was diligent about my skin checks as I was petrified of the skin cancer returning. I visited The Skin Cancer Foundation\u2019s website and read everything I could about how to prevent skin cancer and perform self-exams at home. So when I noticed a lump the size of a ping pong ball on my left armpit, the same arm where my biopsy had been performed when I had melanoma, I began to worry about the possibility of recurrence.<\/p>\n

I was home, caring for my 1-month-old daughter when the phone rang. “I have the results of your biopsy,” the doctor said. “Unfortunately, I have bad news. Your melanoma has returned.” This time, it was stage IIIC metastatic cancer, and it had spread to my lymph nodes.<\/p>\n

It was 2008, and there were not a lot of treatment options. I was given \u201cless than a 5 percent chance\u201d of survival for five years. My family and I traveled across our home state of Arizona, meeting with every oncologist who would answer my calls. It wasn\u2019t until I was accepted into a clinical trial through the Mayo Clinic that I started to feel any hope.<\/p>\n

I traveled every three weeks for treatments to be a part of a double-blind drug trial. Right before the third treatment, I received devastating news \u2013 the melanoma had progressed to stage IV and spread to my right lung.<\/p>\n

The War Inside My Body
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Katie in the hospital, recovering from surgery.<\/p><\/div>\n

In June 2009, I had surgery to remove the metastatic tumors from my lung and started chemotherapy in September. In October, I had surgery to remove the tumor in my spine. By November, the melanoma had reached my brain and, in December, I had surgery to remove the tumor from my left frontal lobe, along with radiation on my brain and uterus. Two weeks later, I was scheduled for my fourth surgery in seven months to remove an ovarian tumor along with my right ovary and fallopian tube, which crushed my dream of expanding our family.<\/p>\n

By January 2010, I had more than 100 metastatic melanoma tumors all over my body. My medical team stopped counting the tumors on the scans because there were literally too many to count.<\/p>\n

Fighting for a Miracle<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In February, my doctor told me, \u201cThis is it.\u201d<\/em> I had only weeks to live. She asked me what\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to do, and I said, \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to take our girls to Disneyland.\u201d I didn\u2019t know how much time I had left, and I wanted my daughters to have magical memories together to look back on. My doctor told us we shouldn\u2019t wait and we should go the very next day. So, 24 hours later, we went to Disneyland for the trip of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

After that trip, I knew there was no world where I wouldn\u2019t be there for my daughters. I had to keep fighting.<\/strong> Melanoma would not take me away from my family.<\/p>\n

I kept trying various drug and therapy combinations until the drug I had been in the clinical trial for, ipilimumab, was approved by the FDA. After multiple doses of that drug, in addition to the other drugs in my system, my treatment plan started working.<\/p>\n

From 2011 to 2014, the cancerous tumors slowly disappeared. It was a miracle. My body was finally starting to heal. I was pronounced cancer-free at the end of 2014, eight years after my first dermatologist appointment. I didn\u2019t really believe I was in the clear until 2019, when I was five years cancer-free. It was then that I felt comfortable enough to share my story.<\/p>\n

Finding The Skin Cancer Foundation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My survival compelled me to educate people about how serious skin cancer is. I relied on the resources, facts and statistics on The Skin Cancer Foundation\u2019s website to educate my friends, family and community about the importance of early detection, prevention and treatment.<\/p>\n

I also volunteered for Destination Healthy Skin, at events held in Tempe, Arizona. It was amazing to be on board the 38-foot RV, with volunteer dermatologists offering free skin cancer screenings to anyone who stopped by. Connecting with program participants and sharing my story was powerful. People were shocked to hear that melanoma wasn\u2019t just on my skin, but it had spread to my brain, lung, uterus, kidneys and spine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Katie volunteering at the Destination Healthy Skin RV in 2024. Her melanoma story was featured in a Save DHS donor appeal to help fuel fundraising for a new RV, and Katie herself raised funds for the campaign.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h3>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. She shares her story of survival to urge everyone to check their skin regularly and to see a dermatologist if something doesn\u2019t look or feel right. Skin cancer can be deadly, and early detection can save your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":28,"featured_media":8593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-true-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMelanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle - The Skin Cancer Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Skin Cancer Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/skincancerfoundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@skincancerorg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@skincancerorg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katie\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/6c67178c6d37b9db8d6b92c95a781aac\"},\"headline\":\"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\"},\"wordCount\":1047,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"This Is Skin Cancer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\",\"name\":\"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle - The Skin Cancer Foundation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00\",\"description\":\"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Katie with her family in 2019, after she was declared five years cancer free.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/\",\"name\":\"The Skin Cancer Foundation\",\"description\":\"Education, prevention, early detection, and treatment of skin cancer\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Skin Cancer Foundation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SCF-LOGO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SCF-LOGO.png\",\"width\":273,\"height\":291,\"caption\":\"The Skin Cancer Foundation\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/skincancerfoundation\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/skincancerorg\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/skincancerorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-skin-cancer-foundation\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/skincancer\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SkinCancerFoundation\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skin_Cancer_Foundation\",\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@skincancerorg\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/6c67178c6d37b9db8d6b92c95a781aac\",\"name\":\"Katie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a323a3d3f25e98b6e770a3206334f27c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a323a3d3f25e98b6e770a3206334f27c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katie\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/author\/katieostrovsky\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle - The Skin Cancer Foundation","description":"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle","og_description":"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/","og_site_name":"The Skin Cancer Foundation","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/skincancerfoundation","article_published_time":"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Katie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@skincancerorg","twitter_site":"@skincancerorg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katie","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/"},"author":{"name":"Katie","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/6c67178c6d37b9db8d6b92c95a781aac"},"headline":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle","datePublished":"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/"},"wordCount":1047,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg","articleSection":["This Is Skin Cancer"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/","url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/","name":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle - The Skin Cancer Foundation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-15T20:26:57+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-13T12:17:20+00:00","description":"Katie was diagnosed with melanoma at age 26 and fought a grueling 8-year battle with the disease. This is her story.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Katie-with-Family-2019-professional.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"Katie with her family in 2019, after she was declared five years cancer free."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/melanoma-almost-killed-me-my-grueling-8-year-battle\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Melanoma Almost Killed Me: My Grueling 8-Year Battle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/","name":"The Skin Cancer Foundation","description":"Education, prevention, early detection, and treatment of skin cancer","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#organization","name":"The Skin Cancer Foundation","url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SCF-LOGO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SCF-LOGO.png","width":273,"height":291,"caption":"The Skin Cancer Foundation"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/skincancerfoundation","https:\/\/x.com\/skincancerorg","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/skincancerorg\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-skin-cancer-foundation\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/skincancer\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SkinCancerFoundation","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skin_Cancer_Foundation","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@skincancerorg"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/6c67178c6d37b9db8d6b92c95a781aac","name":"Katie","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a323a3d3f25e98b6e770a3206334f27c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a323a3d3f25e98b6e770a3206334f27c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Katie"},"url":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/blog\/author\/katieostrovsky\/"}]}},"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skincancer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}