Basal Skin Cell Carcinoma

Two days in a row! LOL! I need to be accountable so here I am again.

I wanted to share my experience of having basal skin-cell carcinoma. A number of years ago, I noticed a bump on my nose but didn't think too much about it. I went to an esthetician that I was seeing for laser hair removal and she said she could remove it and that it was a wart. I let her do it thinking it would be taken care of.  It never really healed and I actually asked my PCP about it and he said "We will keep an eye on it." I have a habit of picking and he said "Leave it alone..."

So fast forward, I go to have surgery on my umbilical hernia and he asked me the story about my nose. I explained it to him and he said "Katie, it's skin cancer and you need to have it checked out." So I get the surgery done and he again said "Now make sure you get it checked." So I did and sure enough he was right.

There is a procedure called MOHS where they take a portion of the lesion off and test the margins to make sure they get it all. Everyone that I talked to said it was basically a mild procedure and should not be too worried about it... welllll.... they were WRONG! I had 60+ shots of Lidocaine in my face and 7 different sessions of excision and 45 stiches! At one point, they even went all the way through my nose as you can see...

 Here are some of the pics:

It was 1/11/17 that I had the MOHS surgery. Ironically, the hernia surgery was 11/1/16. It still feels a little weird but I think he did a really good job considering.

It's been about 7 months now and they said it could take a minimum of 6 months to heal.

I did share it on FB and was glad I did because two different people that saw the picture went and got checked and found they had it too. It was a tad shocking to people but if it saved someone from going through what I did it was worth it. SO if you have any questionable spots I strongly encourage you to get it checked out.

Until next time...