Great...another cancer to contend with.
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oh my goodness ladies! I would hope you had one and done but life keeps rolling. Prayers for a successful surgery and recoveries for all of you. So great to see how we continue to support all the other things that pop up in our lives. Prayers for all the ladies on this board.
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Rita,
Whew! Big sigh of Relief! Wonderful news on the Mohs eye surgery. Sounds like Dr. Kim expects great results with those stitches and a fine looking end result. Beautiful!
It is great hearing that all went better than you expected with minimal pain. Don't we tend to get ourselves into anxious knots first, though? All behind you now!
MoeKay, thinking of your Mohs surgery on your scalp Friday and praying for another positive experience report!
Alicia, I know your Mohs surgery on your leg is May 10th. Prayers for yours!
((Hugs)) to our Mohs surgery ladies.
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I was kind of cranky this morning and was going to wait until later to report in, but then I saw Rita's post. I was so thrilled to hear how well things turned out with the Mohs surgery and eyelid reconstruction!! It sounds like you were the perfect textbook case after all! Such wonderful news!!!
Here's my update. It took the Mohs surgeon two rounds to get all my cancer out. Unlike Rita's dissolvable sutures, I've got sutures that need to be removed in two weeks. My crankiness was not due to the procedure itself, but only because of issues relating to the location of my lesion. They had to tape up my hair above the lesion, and the tape did not come out of my hair easily. One weird thing that I didn't anticipate was the sound of the stitches being put in to close the wound. I guess because mine was close to my ear, I could hear as he pulled the thread through for each of the stitches. Not painful, just very strange.
When I woke up this morning I felt tape high in my head, so I had my husband check to see what was going on (I can't see the darn thing due to its location). The dressing came off the surgical site and was bunched up in my hair. I'm heading out soon to try to get some more non-adherent bandages. Yesterday after the procedure, we went to three pharmacies to try to find the bandages, without success. One said a shipment should be coming in by noon today, so I want to be sure to get there before other people with extra holes in their head like me buy them all up.
I have to put an antibiotic cream on my head once a day and then put on a new non-stick bandage. This is a definite improvement from after the biopsy, when I had to put on the antibiotic cream twice a day without the bandage, so that part of my head looked like I fell into an oil vat.
Since Alicia's lesion is on her leg, and her husband's is on his nose, hopefully both of your experiences will be similar to Rita's, without my minor but annoying frustrations.
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Rita,
Glad to hear that the procedure went well and that they were able to do the reconstruction right away. I thought you might have to wait to have that done.
A friend has had surgery on her eyelids twice in recent years (not cancer-related). There was swelling and bruising each time, but that diminished in a couple of weeks. The stitching scars she had took longer to fade, but now everything looks normal.
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MoeKay,
Good news that your procedure is over, even with the additional aggravation. I use the medical paper tape to secure the night-time leg wrap that I wear due to lymphedema. The velco fasteners tend to lose their stickiness after a few months and since the wrap isn't cheap, I like to extend its life for a few more months using the tape.
But once the pandemic started, it became very hard to find the 2" size that I use (or even the smaller size). I finally started ordering a six-pack of the tape from Amazon. Your experience with the bandages indicates that supply chain issues still continue. I hope you can get some soon.
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MoeKay,
I am so glad that is done. A little aggravated crankiness is sometimes warranted. I am very tender headed. I don't even like my hair shampooed at the salon because they scrub so hard. I cannot fathom your experience, hearing the thread pulling through each stitch on your head. Shiver!
We gals on this site are VERY particular about our hair, having cream and tape stuck up in it. Yucky. I used paper tape on my inncision, too. Less pulling. You made me smile with that oil vat comment. TY for the update and your great attitude overall to the surgery and your aftercare.
When do you two both go back for follow-up?
((Hugs))
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Yikes, that would have creeped me out hearing the sutures pulling through my skin. Fortunately for me, I had IV sedation (Versed & Fentanyl) , so I don't even remember the doctor working on me until the last few minutes. Last thing I was aware of was being wheeled down the hall and then waking up when it was all over.
I go in for a follow up exam on May 9th.
Edited to add:
I had just local anesthesia injections for the Mohs surgery to remove the skin cancer. The IV sedation was for the repair afterward. Two different doctors, two separate procedures in two different buildings.
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Rita Rita <3 I'm so glad it went well.
We all sure go through some rough things together, but we are together.
Sending love.
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Oh, no....I hope things are getting better. I read CMB's post following yours, and I'm starting to think I need to assemble a kit of sorts for these issues. Getting stuff stuck in your hair, the sound of the stitches, and the "oil vat" sound pretty miserable. I'm glad your husband is helping out.
Okay, I'm going to go read back up. I'm starting to wonder if skin cancer has any relationship with uterine cancer. Are "we" just generally unlucky? wondering what's going on here.
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I'm so proud of you for PUSHING yourself further to the front of the line. Too bad medical people don't seem to have the ability to figure that out.
And yes--I was an oil and iodine girl too. I'm going to be on the vigilant lookout for cancer, especially given that I lived in the tropics for a decade. May 10th, here we come.
I'm wondering if there's something in the water? MoeKay, Alicia, and Rita?? like, what????
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I'm still slowly shaking my healing head about the timing of Rita's skin cancer diagnosis and surgery. I've been a member of this board for eighteen years now, and I don't recall ever seeing another skin cancer post on the uterine cancer board. I didn't do a search, so if anyone knows I'm wrong, please correct me. As a result, when first read Rita's post, followed by Connie's and Alicia's, I thought I might be dreaming!
Deb, I too wondered after reading Rita's post whether there might be a connection between uterine cancer and skin cancer, but the quick search I did failed to come up with anything. I did see some research showing a link between endometriosis and skin cancer, the link being strongest to melanoma. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693730/
I haven't mentioned my BCC to a whole lot of people, but of the handful I've told, a couple of them let me know about family members and friends who also have had Mohs surgery (sometimes multiple surgeries over long periods of time) for skin cancer lesions. I guess given how common skin cancer is, this is something we all need to pay close attention to.
Thanks everyone for your concern and your wonderful advice and support! You are truly the best!!
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No kidding. It's pretty unreal, but a stark reminder that lightening does indeed strike twice in the same place. I'm going to be on guard!
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It is interesting that we have a "clump" of skin cancer diagnoses on this board right now, but I think the reality is that skin cancer is just a whole lot more common than most of us realize. And the older we get, the more likely it is that we, or someone close to us, will be heading to the dermatologist to get it taken care of.
Another coincidence -- a friend of mine just a year younger than me, also had BCC Mohs surgery just a couple of weeks before me. Her biggest "repair" was on the top of her head. She ended up with an incision over 2" long and she said that the skin cancer spot (BCC) wasn't that big. So that was one of the reasons that I was worried I'd end up with a big scar on my face after hearing that. I guess we just have to be thankful that most skin cancers aren't life-threatening.
Oh, almost forgot. My eye is doing really well. Swelling is going down, the scratchiness in my eye is improving also. I think that once everything is healed, no one is likely to notice that anything was ever done to my eyelid. 🙂
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Yay, Rita! Sooo glad you’re improving and all will be unnoticeable!
I really think the connection for us on this board with our cancers and skin cancers is the compromised immune system from treatments. And ….yes…it’s so common. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone over 70 that hasn’t had skin cancer removed from somewhere! With all the sun many of us Baby Boomers had, I’m kind of surprised this is my first one!
Still anxiously awaiting a report from MoeKay. I think her Mohs was scheduled for the day after Rita’s.
Love y’all! ❤️, A
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Oh, MoeKay! I found your report post! I guess I’m still missing stuff in this new format!
So glad you’re OK! Hope it’s almost healed now!
❤️❤️❤️, A
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MoeKay,
Good to hear your report back MoeKay. Hopefully, those badages will be history soon!
Rita,
How are you doing after follow-up? Are you pleased with the reconstruction?
Alicia,
Your May 10th Mohs surgery is coming up soon. I am sorry to read of the malaise you are experiencing, possibly from the maintenance drug. I am sorry I forgot the name of it! This is a great deal to manage! Hugs to you!
Love your cute puppy
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In two days, I will be 2 weeks "post op" from my eyelid cancer surgery and I am very pleased to inform you all that my eye looks really good! 😊 There is only a small amount of swelling where the incisions were made....and a bit of a "black eye" still, but that is fading. Pain even the first day, was minimal.
I am amazed that even I can barely tell where the incisions were, they are healing that nicely. If it weren't for the fact that the outer 1/3rd of my lower lid has no eyelashes from where the skin got pulled over from the edge of my eye over to the center, you would never be able to tell that almost 1/2 of my lower lid was removed. I don't think there will even be a scar large enough for anyone to spot without a magnifying glass.
So, yes MoeKay, I am pleased with the reconstruction, very pleased indeed. 😊 I hope others will be as satisfied with their results as I am.
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I have to say that those 5 stitches came out with a lot less noise than they went in with! I'm now free to use conditioner on my hair. I still have to use the mupirocin topical antibiotic for another week and can't color my hair for a few more weeks. I got a copy of the Mohs surgeon's report, which states that the pre-op size of the lesion was 0.9 cm x 0.7 cm, and the post-op size was 1.5 cm x 1.8 cm, with a closure size of 2.9 cm. My next follow-up appointment is in three months.
Rita, I hope everything goes well at your follow-up appointment on Monday! Alicia, wishing you all the best with your surgery on Tuesday! Please keep us posted on how you both are doing!!
MoeKay
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