After skin cancer surgery, Rachel Maddow is okay and is back to work as an MSNBC newscaster

Rachel Maddow

Leftist MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow apparently is okay after surgery for skin cancer.

According to a story by Kate Feldman in the New York Daily News, Maddow revealed this week that she'd undergone the operation last Friday, "which explained the Band-Aid on her neck and her few days off the air."

The 48-year-old's partner of 22 years, photographer Susan Mikula, the article says, "a couple of months ago" noticed when they were at a minor league baseball game that a mole had changed. So Maddow visited a dermatologist who did a biopsy that determined that the mole was cancerous.

The surgery took place at NYU Langone.

Felman's story quotes Maddow as saying, "I am going to be absolutely fine. I'm going to be totally fine." — confirmed by a  USA Today quote from her, "They got it, they got it all…I have clear margins and everything."

Skin cancer, the Daily News piece notes, "is the most common of all cancers, affecting 1 in 5 Americans by the age of 70, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. The most prevalent risk factors include indoor tanning, sun exposure and genetics."

When caught early, it says, "almost all forms of skin cancer are treatable" — and virtually all, the foundation says, are curable if diagnosed and treated early enough.

Dermatologists say sunscreen can be a preventative.

Says Maddow, according to the News, "It's only by the grace of Susan that I found mine in enough time that it was totally treatable.… I have been blowing off my appointments forever to get stuff like that checked because I've assumed it will always be fine."

Because "not everybody has a Susan," the story continues, the political commentator "urged people, especially those with moles, to get regular checks by doctors."

Maddow, USA Today reports, "has used her platform in  the past to stress health concerns. In November 2020 she delivered an impassioned warning about the danger off Covid-19 after her partner contracted the illness."

More information about surgeries and recovery can be found in"Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.