Basal Cell Carcinoma Progress

So there was a spot on my forehead that I first thought was some weird blemish that just wouldn't heal?   Then I thought, is this ringworm, because it had raised rounded edges??  Then I wondered if it was excema because it was dry and itchy.  None of these suspicions proved true and after months of wondering (and a built-in couple years  - yes, years - of wondering about another spot on my nose that just wouldn't heal), I finally consulted a dermatologist.  She thought both would be nothing.  They didn't respond to the stuff she gave me for them, which I knew would happen.  Then she did a biopsy.  The nose spot proved to be non-cancerous (though still a mystery for another day) and the forehead spot proved to be basal call carcinoma.  Lovely! Date was set for April to have it removed.  This pic shows the mostly inconspicuous spot in question on my forehead, really only even visible because of the pink indention from the biopsy.

Little did I know, the procedure to have it removed was to be far more involved than the biopsy.  Ha!  It was five hours.  And you are lucky I didn't take a pic of the GAPING POTHOLE in my face after the second chunk they took out in the course of the afternoon.  Needless to say, it was shocking.  And gross.  And amazing.  And shocking. The nurse laughed at my reaction when the dr held up a mirror before stitching it back closed.  She said it was small compared to things she has seen.  She compared it to a dime size cut.  Y'all.  It was more like a quarter to a half-dollar, more on the half-dollar size than not.  I thought there was no way there was enough skin to close back up over it!  This pic is after the first cut... which they then take and study under a microscope to see if they got it all. Mohs procedure something or other, I am told.

After an hour they came back and said they needed to take more on the left and bottom side.  So take more they did.  Then I waited almost two hours for the microscope work.  Thankfully, they returned and said they got it all that time.

Then the dr goes to stitch me back up.  I was surprised to sense his doing more cuts when I expected sewing - ha!  I believe this the point where he cut along the eyebrow to ... I don't know what ... to provide more movement on the skin to try to sew up that gaping hole in my forehead?  At any rate, the skin did pull together and it was tight.  Such a weird sensation.  Notice the swelling around my eye starting up.

Bandaged up super serious and tight and swelling quickly.  I kept this on for two days and obeyed strict instructions not to lay down flat for 4 nights.  I popped a LOT of tylenol and ibuprofen because that sucker hurt, hurt, hurt for the next two days.

Dressing up the whole ordeal with a pair of glasses on the way home while Josh ran into Kroger for wound care supplies.

Two days later when I finally got a shower and removed the bandage.  Good thing we are staying home for quarantine.  Anna remarked the unfortunate fact that the scar was "in the shape of an L ... on your forhead."  Ha! She didn't even know the song that got stuck in my head at that point, but she did demonstrate for me the mocking Loser dance boys at co-op and church do for just such an occasion.  I kept it covered with Vaseline and gauze for a full week until stitches came out.

7 days after the surgery, back at the office to have the stitches removed and some Botox administered for the purpose of inhibiting scarring. 

Right after Botox and stitches.

Progression over the next 7 days...

In some lights it will look hardly noticeable.  Other lights give away the lumpyness of it.  There are still stitches underneath that have to dissolve.  Clearly.

I think I am in for several months before complete healing?  But the scar itself is almost imperceptible; you have to look hard to the see the line where the cuts were.  The lumps and pinkyness around it, however, are still noticeable.  Emily says not to worry ... I am only two weeks out from the surgery.  Great healing so far!  I agree. Not gonna fret it.

It is still numb to the touch ... as far up into past my hairline even. So interesting.  That thing on my nose ... still there sort of.  Will go back about that another time maybe.  Sigh.