Are you the Master of your Domain?
By Master Marilyn Tuna 27/3/25
Maybe too many trips to sydney , maybe a heavy metal load , maybe this is when i know i get some uninterrupted time to write ,use my brain the way i wish to use it without the never ending tasks that life seems to throw at me and us all .. or maybe she’s just born with it ..
What is “ it “ ?
Intuitively I feel in my case, its years of medically induced insomnia intertwined with having fuck all time to do what I love the most .. sit and write.
This morning, I’m not surprised that I woke up at this obscene hour. Yesterday, like most Mondays, I waddled through the stupidly hot March Monday, working at the school canteen with less-than-desirable functioning air conditioning and a lot of grumpy, hot kids with a concerning thirst for icy poles at lunchtime. My mind was not on task, as I usually find the little rat bags amusing and somewhat refreshing, but the only refreshing thing that happened yesterday was the impromptu swim I had in my undies at the beach before receiving my skin biopsy results.
The cardinal sin—taking off my clothes to run into the ocean with stitches still in my back, just to take a moment of solitary joy. The water was so clear I could hear my thoughts more clearly as I dived under the still, calm North Cott water.
It’s not often that 40-year-old, full-time working women get the chance to enjoy something as simple as an undie-run beach dip, so I took my moment… but as I stepped out of the water, something dropped in my heart—50% because I knew I had no towel, and 50% because I had a bad feeling about what the doctor was going to say.
I used my canteen apron to dry myself and did the best I could to dust myself off to poorly hide my impromptu dip.
As I walk into the stunning doctor’s office, seated right on the beach in North Cott, I internally giggled to myself… getting my possible skin cancer results at what looks like a beach resort was ironic and kind of fucked up.
My lovely doctor walked out—someone I have grown to like. Her energy is warm and open. I take a seat and quickly run my hand up the back of my head, wiping away the dripping seawater, admitting my swimming sins by saying, “I committed the cardinal sin—I went for a swim with stitches in. Am I in trouble?” I gave her a cheeky look, and she laughed, saying, “How could you not? It’s beautiful out there. I would have done the same.”
I told her my stitches in my back had felt fine, but incredibly annoying, so I was very ready to have them plucked out. She pushed a piece of paper toward me with less-than-desirable results. In layman’s terms: “We are fkn lucky we dug that shit out because it was getting nasty.” But she reassured me that everything had been removed and no further action was needed.
I take my shirt off so she can begin pulling the little buggers out, but then she stops and asks me to sit still—she’s found something that looks a bit off. She took a photo of another funny-shaped spot, and her energy changed. “This needs to be taken out ASAP. It looks like melanoma.”
She went into full hardcore doc mode, telling me it was imperative that I see a specialist as soon as humanly possible. Internally terrified, I agreed to follow all her direct instructions. She seemed flustered, leading me to feel an internal rush of adrenaline.
She then directs me to put my shirt back on, as we had been having this very serious convo with my tits staring right at her… At least I had my nice nipple rings in, I thought to myself, trying to internally make light of this stressful-as-fuck situation.
So I take a seat, with my small breasts now covered, while she types at a speed that impressed and somewhat scared me. She handed me the referral to see the skin cancer/dermo pro doc and said, “Wait for a call—we need to get you in ASAP.” But she told me not to stress too much, as we caught this early and it should all be fine.
I apologized for my sandy feet, thanked her for her care, and walked out the door. Looked at the ocean once more and thought, Bloody hell, what a fucker of a Monday…
Within 45 minutes, I had an appointment booked with the skin pro. Then I proceeded to get home and try desperately to disassociate from what had just unfolded…
I had about 30 minutes before my daughter got home from school, so I started to wonder if my lifelong condition, endo—a full-body state of chronic inflammation—had any connections to melanoma. So I hit up Google Scholar for the down-low…
To my great surprise, they do. And with some pretty heavy, decent research to back it up. France, Scotland, and many other countries have seen a high percentage of connections between endo and melanoma. These weren’t small studies either—there were undeniable stats.
I was shook. Why the hell had this not been brought to my attention?
Especially considering I live in Australia… with the highest rates of skin cancer in the world???
” A retrospective cohort study using Scottish national population-based data was conducted. The study comprised 281,937 women with nearly 5 million person years (4,923,628) of follow up from 1981 to 2010. 17,834 women with a new surgical diagnosis of endometriosis were compared with 83,303 women with no evidence of endometriosis at laparoscopy, 162,966 women who underwent laparoscopic sterilisation and 17,834 age-matched women from the general population to determine the risk of melanoma. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate crude and adjusted Hazards ratios with 95 % Confidence Intervals.
Results
Women with endometriosis had a significantly higher risk of melanoma when compared to women with no evidence of endometriosis at laparoscopy (HR 1.59, 95 % CI 1.19–2.13), women who had undergone laparoscopic sterilisation (HR 1.82, 95 % CI 1.39–2.40) and age-matched women from the general population (HR 1.63, 95 % CI 1.08–2.45).
Conclusion
A diagnosis of endometriosis was associated with an increased risk of developing melanoma compared to those without endometriosis. These findings highlight the need for further research to explore shared pathways in the pathogenesis of the two conditions. It is important to acknowledge that the absolute increase in the risk of melanoma in women with endometriosis remains low, which should be considered when counselling women.
Link – https://www.ejog.org/article/S0301-2115(20)30825-3/abstract
So after my little trip into PubMed—somewhat wishing it was just to the pub—I sat for the remaining five minutes of peace before the afternoon of pre-teen management was about to begin and thought, FFS, this disease is a real nasty bastard.This is not just a one-location malignant disease—this is a condition that has a multi-pronged reach into our bodies, lives and affect all the people that rally around us.
I allowed myself to feel internal feminine rage for two minutes, then put on my happy mum face as my beautiful daughter walked in, demanding to know what’s for dinner at 4 p.m.
I know I will be fine, and I know that whatever is thrown my way, I will make headway with grace and strength—for that is what generations of women have had to do and will continue to do for many more years to come. I see this as a positive and a superhero skill, one i am slowly helping my daughter cultivate.
Fast forward 48 hours and I’m surprised to have been booked in so quickly to see a specialist dermatologist with my incredible GP clearly very worried about what’s going on, leading me to a few days of heightened stress. I won’t lie I had many thoughts going through my head, having melanoma in the family, witnessing first-hand the devastating effects of how quickly this can take a life.
Finally, the appointment time arrives, and I walk through the doors of this rather posh and bloody busy looking skin specialist clinic, looking around the waiting room full of boomers and a few women who clearly had been long term clients for the more “restorative treatment procedures “with nursing staff buzzing around plucking patients out of the waiting crowd to be poked and prodded. Standing in line to check in with one of the medical receptionists I think to myself they really do have bad wrap for being assholes both curiously grumpy unforgiving creatures, this lady did not let me down ..
My stance with social situations like this, is to be so nice it makes them even more annoyed with life, today was my day to truly shine… As I look at this standard patient form, and my marital status section I look at what choose, men have either Mr , Dr or Master with no clear dictation on marital status, yet my section was Miss, Mrs or Ms all that are the complete opposite.
I’m red-blooded woman who loves her man there is no denying this fact, but when you get a chance to fuck with someone over a completely pointless and relevant box to tick, you take that chance.
With a straight face I circle Master – Master Marilyn Tuna and hand the form back it was like a test of wills between us, she looked at me curiously, while I just stared back in a tone of “you may call me master “and took my seat waiting to be called in to see the skin bro.
After the standard 30 min wait over my official appt time, i was called by the doctor into his room, he didn’t beat around the bush and told me to take my top off, it was rather unfortunate that he did not address me by my name but hey. So, he takes a few photos and asks me a few questions then sits me down, basically its small and we can take it out in 2 weeks, he seemed chill about the whole situation bringing me to much ease but thankful he had fit me in non the less. I skipped out with a huge sigh of relief, booked my appointment for the next little chop and get the hell out of there .. Got home and went to the beach.
What had unfolded this week has been obviously stressful but also enlightening, as we have a clash of attitudes and clearly a slow shift in change , I had been taken care of quickly as a woman seen little to no medical misogyny , was taken seriously even prioritized , for most of my adult life this has not been the case with any medical situation that has needed attention not just endo.
I’m certainly not insinuating that we are on an equal path as men and women in the field of medicine coupled with poor administration data management design but it better than what it was. So ladies I urge you to get your skin checked at least once a year , if you have any chronic illness do it twice a year, I also urge you to pick the most ridiculous marital status section you can if only for your own amusement in times of high stress , your health matters but who you fucking has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Love from me xx Master Marilyn Tuna
marilyntuna.art 