Meet Kim

Kim McLaughlin is theTown Clerk of Old Orchard Beach, and a melanoma survivor. She agreed to share her story in her own words with the goal,“to save someone’s life”.

January 3rd , 2017, began as any other day. I was still on vacation from Christmas, my favorite time of the year. I was taking a shower and shaving my legs when I noticed a new mole on my right, lower leg. It was small, about the size of a pinhead, but it was a raised bump. I thought it was strange, so I took a photo of it before going to bed that night to see if it stays the same or changes over time.

Over the next few months it got slightly larger, darker and it was itchy sometimes. I had a dermatologist appointment on May 9th , so I thought I would mention it to her. I also had a mole on my upper right front shoulder that I’ve had for years. Every time I would go out in the sun, I tried to put sunscreen on it, but I think I went more times without than with. It was also unsightly.

When I saw the dermatologist, she asked if I had any concerns. I have been going to this dermatologist for several years for yearly checkups. My primary care physician is a strong believer in having your skin checked every year. I told her about the mole on my lower leg. She looked at it with a naked eye and then through a glass instrument and said it was fine that it looked just like the other mole I had just an inch or so away, that I’ve had about 20 years.

I told her how it had grown since January and it sometimes itched. I then told her about my shoulder mole. She said if they concerned me, she would remove the two I was concerned about, but that they didn’t concern her. The procedure was quick and painless, practically. I had one removed in the past that was tested and turned out benign. She wiped my skin, took a needle to inject me with Novocain and within five seconds she scraped it off and it was done. She did that to both spots and I was out the door with a scheduled, routine appointment for the following year. I never thought another thing of it, because my dermatologist didn’t.

May 17th…my mom had died on December 3rd , 2016, from kidney cancer. My sister and I hadn’t sold her house yet, which was directly across the street from me. My daughter, Megan, and I decided to take the dogs, after work, to my mom’s fenced in yard and let them play. At 6:18 p.m., my cell phone rings. It was a Portland phone number, but I had no idea who it was. I answered the phone it was my dermatologist. She asked me if I was driving…I knew right then something was wrong. She said I was right to be concerned. The test came back that the mole on my lower leg was melanoma. She asked me to get a pen and paper and write down what she said. I was so scared, I ran to my house and grabbed pen and paper and I have no idea what I wrote. All I remember is her telling me that they have come a long way, and people are living longer now, and that she wanted me in for surgery within two weeks.

I walked back to see Megan, and she saw that I was crying. She asked what was wrong and I told her what I remembered from the conversation. We hugged, neither one of us knowing what to think or what would happen next. I immediately called my other daughter, Kristie. She said she would leave work and come here, but I told her there wasn’t anything she could do right now, and to stay at work. I then called my sister, Kelly, who was temporarily living in Colorado. She had just flown out with her son, Gage, for his birthday and our mom’s memorial; now, she’s coming back, again. I loved to see her, and missed her, but I wished she was here under better circumstances.

After I spoke with Kelly on the phone, Megan and I went in the house to wait for my fiancé, George, to come home from a meeting. When he came home, I asked him to sit down, that I had something to tell him. He said we would handle it together.

I wasn’t sure what to think after that night. I was scared, but I didn’t want to believe I had it. If I did, I hadn’t heard of anyone dying from it, and it doesn’t run in my family. I was still scared…scared of what would happen to me, scared for my family, and scared of the operation and its results. I started putting together what I call my “death book”. I wanted to make sure my family knew where everything was my will, my life insurance, car and house insurance, how my mortgage got paid, water, electric, students loans, credit card. You never really think about it. If I’m gone, they need to still function. It’s one less thing to worry about while they are grieving. I was kind of in a daze that week. I went to work and told my staff my diagnosis, and the Assistant Town Manager, so they would know I would be out and why. They were so supportive at work.

On May 23rd I had my consultation with my surgeon (Kim’s surgeon no longer works for MaineHealth). My fiancé George, and daughters Megan and Kristie, all came with me for support. The surgeon explained the procedure she wanted to do wide excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy. She asked me about the other mole. I told her I had that other (the one about an inch away) for about 20 years. She said she was still concerned about it, and asked me if she could remove it. I thought it would be just like what the dermatologist did. Either way, I knew it had to be done. It was definitely not what I expected. She wiped the area clean and then took a needle and inserted it into my leg around the mole; but unlike the dermatologist, she didn’t stop. She put so much Lidocaine in my leg that the whole area around the mole was swollen like I had hives. She then had what she called a “cookie cutter” and punched the mole. It didn’t hurt, but I just stared at it hanging there. She took tweezers, removed it, stitched it, then bandaged it. It bled through the bandage for almost a week. She said she would have the results of that biopsy by the day of surgery so if she had to, she could take care of both at the same time. She said she thought that because my melanoma was on my lower leg, that it would go through my lymphatic system to my lymph nodes behind my knee, and that’s where she would remove the lymph node, but she would know more once the imaging was done the day of surgery.

We tried to get the surgery scheduled ASAP, but the earliest date was May 31st . I continued to work, even doing the Memorial Day Parade on May 29th . Kelly and Gage flew in that night, and the whole family left for Maine Medical for a 7:45 a.m. appointment at nuclear medicine. The surgery would not be until 11 a.m.

I met with the technician, who explained the first part of the procedure. He was going to insert a needle at four different spots around the mole and inject a blue dye. He would then monitor the travelling of the dye to see which lymph node it traveled to. If the melanoma was travelling, that would be the closest lymph node. I removed my lower clothing and put a robe on. I laid on the table. He said he could give me a shot of lidocaine, but that it would only work at the surface and these needles went deeper than that. I decided to move forward without it. The first needle stung like a bee sting ouch, but the pain subsided quickly. He said we could wait before the next one, but I said I just wanted to get it done like the saying about a Band-Aid®. We did all four, and then into the machine. He said it would take up to two hours to travel (that’s why the surgery was scheduled at 11 am). Within ten minutes, it travelled to the lymph node in my groin. He marked it with a marker so the surgeon would know which one to remove. I asked him if it was good or bad that it travelled that fast. He just said it meant I had a good lymphatic system. He then took me back to my family, and walked us to where we would sign in for surgery.

We sat down and they called me to the desk, and gave me a black call box, like at a restaurant. I asked if it reached to the cafeteria. The room was so crowded, there wasn’t any room and my family was hungry. I couldn’t eat, but I wanted them to. I was told it would reach, so we went there. Within a few minutes, my beeper went off so we went back. The nurse signed me in and then said I could go back to the cafeteria. A little while later, it buzzed again at 10:15 a.m. We went back and the nurse met me again, and took me in. She forgot I was in the cafeteria. She said, “You didn’t eat anything, did you?” I told her I was hungry, but I knew I couldn’t eat anything.

Left: Laurie Seavey, Practice Safe Skin Manager for Impact Melanoma, and right, Kim McLaughlin, Town Clerk of Old Orchard Beach, with newly installed sunscreen dispensers in Old Orchard Beach in 2021.

I was brought in the pre-op area, where I was met by the surgeon, the nurses, and the anesthesiologist. They put an IV in my hand and rolled me into the operating room. My family each had a moment to visit with me before I went in. The room was small, so only two could be there at a time. Well, George, Megan, Kristie and Kelly all took turns, two at a time. Gage stayed in the waiting room since he was only seven; it would be too scary for him and he wouldn’t understand, so a family member always stayed with him.

They wheeled me into the operating room and transferred me to the table. They told me they would put a breathing tube down my throat, but it would be put in after I was asleep and removed before I awoke. I was nervous about that because when my mom had surgery, they hit a sensory nerve and she never smelled or tasted anything the rest of her life…ten plus years.

I also told the anesthesiologist I didn’t want to wake up during surgery, but didn’t want to sleep for hours like my last surgery in 1999. He said they have come a long way. He put a mask on my face, and told me to relax and breathe deeply. I was waiting for him to ask me to count, but I was out before my third deep breath.

I woke up in post-op. I had been out less than two hours, including the surgery. I couldn’t tell that I had even had the tube in my throat. I couldn’t feel any pain. They moved me to another curtained room again, only a couple people could come in. I had something to drink and crackers; of course I saw nurses and the surgeon. They removed the IV and I got dressed. The surgeon said to call and schedule a follow- up. George went to get the car and I was transported out in a wheelchair.

The pain didn’t hit for a couple of days. My first follow-up was on June 9th . Kelly had already flown back to Colorado, but George, Megan and Kristie took me. When they had done the surgery, they couldn’t close the gap, so they had taken a donor graft from my thigh and used blue mesh to put over the hole. I was told it would eventually fill in. Well, that graft was more painful than the other two procedures. After two days, and blood seeping through the bandage, we changed the bandage OMG. The bandage stuck to the graft ouch. I cried when I changed that bandage. Well it continued to bleed, so I called the doctor’s office and said it was still bleeding a few days later. They said not to remove the bandage, but keep putting more bandages on top. Well it kept bleeding, and I kept adding more bandages. On the day of the follow-up, by the time I got there, I had bled through my pants. They changed the bandage. Then they looked at my lymph node incision, which had plastic strips on the top of stitches and said that was healing well. They went to take off the bandage where my melanoma was. They told me to “be prepared”, that it was going to “look a lot different than what I would think”. The nurse took the ace bandage off, then the gauze, then removed the yellow Xeroform® OMG I was shocked, and so was my family. I couldn’t believe it. She was right…I wasn’t prepared. There was a big hole with blue mesh in it, and 12 staples all around the edges. They had also sutured the bandage in, so I also had four marks where the stitches were. Above the wound was the word “YES”. The nurse said they write that in ink to make sure they have the correct leg. The surgeon looked at it, and said another week before I could shower ugh. Also, they wanted to wait another week before removing the staples. The nurse was then telling us about the bandaging needed for daily dressing changes.

The Xeroform® needed to be folded like an accordion, and placed over the wound. It was painful. She was pressing on the staples and the wound. Her words hit me, though, “You can be killed with kindness”. In other words, this may be painful but it has to be done. A 3x3 gauze pad with saline solution went next, then a dry 4x4 gauze pad, then a gauze wrap was put on. Then, she wrapped me from toes to knee in two ace bandages. I was told that visiting nurses could change the bandage for me each day at the house, because I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own, and I didn’t want my fiancé or children to have to do it.

The next day, a visiting nurse came to the house and asked if I was going to work, which I was. She said visiting nurses are only for people who are homebound, so she wouldn’t be able to come and change my bandage each day. So, I had no choice. She taught my fiancé how to do it, and he had to change it each day.

June 26th was my fiancé’s family vacation in New York, and we drove there. My foot was so swollen, I spent most of the time lying in bed with my foot elevated that week.

On July 19th the surgeon said for me to get a compression stocking. I went to a distributor in Scarborough and they outfitted me for an expensive compression stocking. Well, the fluid came out the melanoma surgery wound. I called the doctor, and she said to take off the stocking. An infection was diagnosed on July 21st , and more wound care and two rounds of antibiotics followed.

On July 30th , I hosted my daughter Kristie’s bridal shower. I was so worried it wouldn’t be perfect because I was still recovering. My cousin Debbie and my Aunt Priscilla helped, as did my co-worker Charlene, and it was great.

On August 3rd , I had to teach a New Clerks Workshop in Waterville. Luckily, my co- worker was attending the class, so she drove me August 5th was Illumination Night in Ocean Park. I never miss Illumination Night, but I did that year. I just couldn’t walk it.

On August 8th, I had my three-month follow up with my dermatologist. She said to scrape off the surface of the wound to speed the healing of my melanoma surgical site. She also said I would have a permanent indent.

On August 11th , the surgeon said they would continue to monitor the redness and soreness for infection. She said I could walk, but no exercise. The foot would continue to swell until the lymph node healed.

On August 26th , I was actually able to walk in the Save a Stray in Freeport. It was rough, though.

On September 1st , I had my last appointment with the surgeon. She said there wasn’t anything further she could do, and it would have to continue to heal on its own, which could take up to a year.

February 27th , 2018, my dermatologist saw another mole, this time on my left knee. She removed it. Phew, a week later her nurse called to say it was benign.

In 2021, Kim partnered with ImpactMelanomaas an advocate for melanoma prevention and awareness, and was the inspiration for the installation of the sunscreen dispensers around Old Orchard Beach and at other locations.

Fast forward to 2023, Kim credits her PCP for suggesting regular check-ups with a dermatologist, and knows she was her own best advocate when she knew something wasn’t right on her skin. She hopes her story will inspire others.

For more information about melanoma and advocacy activities, please see next, and go to: https://impactmelanoma.org/.