Rachel Maddow Reveals She Underwent Surgery To Remove Skin Cancer After A Mole Changed, Urges Viewers 'To Get This Stuff Checked At The Doctor'
Rachel Maddow had quite the health scare.
On the Wednesday, October 6, episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, the 48-year-old told viewers that she recently had surgery for skin cancer.
Maddow said that she had the operation on Friday, October 1, after her partner Susan Mikula noticed a mole on her neck had changed "a couple months ago."
The political commentator had a biopsy which confirmed that she had skin cancer.
Maddow explained that skin cancer accounts for the majority of cancers diagnosed in the United States. "Even the deadliest kinds of skin cancer now, the ones that are— you know, that like to spread to other parts of your body, the ones that really try to kill you, even the skin cancers that are the deadliest skin cancers in the country, those two are way more treatable than they used to be on one condition— that you get them early," Maddow said.
"Even the most worrying forms of skin cancer. If you identify it early enough, it is now quite treatable. Advances in the last few years have been leaps and bounds. Skin cancer, like I said, there’s a lot of different kinds of skin cancer. Even the worst ones are eminently more treatable than they used to be. And if you get them early, they’re almost all completely treatable," she added.
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"All this to say, I would like to introduce you to my band-aid," Maddow said. "I had a few days off because I had surgery at NYU Langone on Friday. They’re fantastic. They got it, they got all of it. I’m good. I have clear margins, the whole thing."
"I know I need to have everything checked, like, every five minutes from here on out because I do not want to get this again. Susan was right! She always is! I am going to be absolutely fine. I’m going to be totally fine," Maddow continued.
"It’s only by the grace of Susan that I found mine in enough time that it was totally treatable, because I have been blowing off my appointments forever to get stuff like that checked, because I’ve assumed it will always be fine. You do need to get this stuff checked at the doctor. Do not blow it off," Maddow urged viewers.
