Recently I had a spot on my face diagnosed as Basal Cell Carcinoma. It's a type of skin cancer that grows deep down into the skin on your face, and slowly spreads. If left unchecked it can be quite disfiguring. The procedure designated for the removal of this type of skin cancer spot is called Mohs Surgery.
Basically, what the doctor does is take as little as possible of your skin around the cancerous area, they run it in a lab to see if it's got any cancer-free margins, and if not, they come back and take a little more and repeat it until the lab shows it's clean. The idea is to disfigure you as little as possible.
They told me to plan on at least half a day or more at the office while they did the cuts. I brought snacks, and my book, and hoped it would take as little time and as few cuts as possible. With this type of skin problem, you never know how deep it's gone. Sometimes it can be huge under the surface, like an iceberg.
They did the first cut, and I sat for an hour while they ran the labs. When they came back, I was good to go! It was super small and they'd gotten it all the first try. They stitched me up, and gave me wound care tips, and I was on my way! What could've taken hours only took about 90 minutes.
One thing that is great about this surgery, is the doctor was well trained in plastic surgery stitching, so what could've been a big nasty purple/pink scar, has been much more minimal.
It's been about a month or more since the procedure, and it's looking great.
All in all, it was a super easy experience, and I'm glad they were able to catch it and get everything before it grew any bigger.
To learn more about Basal Cell Carcinoma, click here.
To learn more about Mohs Surgery, click here.
How is the scar looking now? I have the same in the same area :(
ReplyDeleteI barely even notice it! I don't think anyone else does either. It has kind of disappeared into my face for the most part. I had a great surgeon. How is your scar?
DeleteI have one in the same place. I thought it was dry skin, so had it about 6 months while waiting for an appointment. Just had a biopsy, awaiting results, but seems likely to be BCC. How long did yours go before it was diagnosed? I'm scared about it maybe being deep. Yours healed very nicely! :)
ReplyDeleteI had it a few years. It was a tiny spot at first, then it grew a little, but it was never larger than a pencil eraser in size. And I thought it was dry skin too... no amount of moisturizer would un-crust it. Su
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