Monday, July 21, 2008

Post-Mohs-Nose-or 1 Week later

I got my stitches out today. Only to get suristrips! The mohs doctor is only in town a couple of days a week. He didn't think the stitches should stay in until Thursday, but he wanted to put surgistrips on just in case. I have to go back on Thursday to see if I need new surgistrips. I was told under no circumstances should I rub it, touch it, or do anything else to it- which is quite a feat when you have toddler twins going buck wild around you all the time.

I feel much more relaxed about the process than I did a few days ago. As you can read in my previous entry, I thought that my post mohs nose looked like a Bejoran. I still do. In fact, a couple people I knew looked at the pics on this site and FREAKED out, which didn't help the self confidence. But, now I can laugh about it.

I took a couple of pictures today of the front and profile of my nose before the stitches were removed: As you can see, still an odd profile to the nose, but the scar looks good. And then here is the pic with my new surgistrips! Yeah!
I asked him about the nose profile. He told me it isn't so much that there is a dent. It is more that there is a bump on both ends of the scar where the tissue was pulled together. Basically, I had an elipse shaped wound. In order to pull the two widest edges together, it caused the skinnier ends to bunch up a bit. He said he will look at it again in 3 months to see how it healed. Possibly the bumps will settle down. If not, he said he can shave them down, but it will leave a bigger scar..... so we will see and I will keep you updated.

6 comments:

Deborah said...

Thank you for sharing your Mohs surgery experience! I can commiserate with you. I am in my late twenties and just had Mohs surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma from my upper lip. My stitches were removed two days ago, and the scar and swelling are still pretty atrocious. My Mohs surgeon assures me that the scar will continue to heal, and the redness can be removed with a laser in just a few weeks. Thanks again for sharing. I look forward to your updates!

PostMohsNose said...

Oh, I am so glad this is helpful... that is what I hoped for. I just posted an update today with the first non-stich or strip pictures... My surgeon told me I could have a follow up in 3 months to remove redness and excess scar tissue. Knock on wood, I won't need it hopefully.

Mohs Surgery said...

Just wanted to thank you so much for posting your experience. you may need much post operative care for this mohs surgey.Typical recovery depends on the location of the cancer, the size of the defect, what type of reconstruction was required, and whether there are any complicating factors. Most of our patients return the day after surgery at which time the pressure bandage is removed the surgery site evaluated. After that the patient cleans the site twice daily with hydrogen peroxide; applies and antibiotic salve and a non-stick bandage. Sutures are removed for most sites at a week, and by then the site tends to be healing quite well. However, I tell patients that it takes a full 6-12 months to get the final cosmetic result after surgery, during which time we have them use sunscreens and possibly topical silicone gels to further improve the final result.

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