Skin Cancer

Timely reminder. I am 61, blonde and fair skinned, but as a kid always ran around without a shirt during the summer, and as a teenager applied numerous coats of the original Hawaiian Tropic Coconut Oil which had no sunscreen. About 20 yrs ago while mowing grass I scratched my shoulder on a tree limb and the wound kept scabbing over multiple times. Went to doctor and he sent me to skin cancer specialist and had a basil cell cancer removed. Although I always wear a cap and use sunscreen, over the last 20 yrs I have had about 6 spots removed and other potential spots lightly frozen, with the latest a spot on my ankle from last year cut out in April. I go back to be checked every 12-18 months.

Funny story…I had a spot just in the hairline above my forehead. Rather than cut or freeze it, to minimize scarring the doctor prescribed applying Aldara, and told me to tell my wife not to worry. I had no clue what he meant until I had the prescription filled and the pharmacist asked if the doctor told me how to apply. I showed her the place above my forehead and told her I was supposed to apply once a day. She started laughing and explained that Aldara is principally prescribed for genital warts, which explained the doctor’s comment.
 
7 surgeries and a chunk out of my ear to patch a hole in my nose. Oooooooowheeeee did that one hurt! Grew up on the water on boats since I was 6 then spent 25 yrs on the water (sometimes unintentionally under it) with the Coast Guard. Wouldn't have traded it for anything. No video games back then and maybe 4 channels of TV. Who cared.
 
I cancelled my repair of the repair of the failed graft on my nose. The surgeon got the BCC on the first try, resulting in a BB-sized hole. Then he got fancy and cut a pizza slice out of the top of my nose and brought it down to cover the place where the BCC was. The graft failed and then he had to slice the length of my nose to pull together the whole mess. I was supposed to have dermabrasion back in January, but the surgeon said it would take more than dermabrasion to fix the remaining problem. Everyone tells me it keeps looking better all the time so I'm going to wait a full year before re-evaluating another surgery. Evidently the oil pores wreak havoc on the nose surgery/healing.

I'm glad the BCC is gone, but the cure ain't a whole lot better than the damage to begin with!
 
My wife has gone thru numerous surgeries as Speedo has described. She has had a similar nose procedure, she has had parts of her forehead removed until there was nothing but skull remaining. Two things are vitally important. Make sure you have a good dermatologist performing the work, and make sure that you find the very best Plastic Surgeon that you can afford to do the reconstructive work. It makes all of the difference.
 
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