It is probably done through frozen section there in the OR or nearby. It tells the surgeon that they have gotten the margins of the malignancy (or if there is one).
Yeh, I figured that the dermatologist's office may not have had the lab apparatus. I wonder if folks who have had stuff removed that easily had mohs done, or if it were merely another type of removal.
I am. They are not. Apparently this is slow-growing, but it's also been there for a while. I had the same thing when looking for another dermatologist. I told them of the cancer, they still scheduled me way out.
So I got this done yesterday. The worse parts were the numbing shots and the thought of what was being done to me. The doctor was good. He had an intern there who he was training, so it was interesting hearing the doctor explain exactly what he was doing in great detail to the intern. For example, when the doctor was giving me the initial numbing shot up by my cheekbone, he was explaining how that particular nerve was always directly below the pupil, and how the depth he inserted the needle into me compared to the depth with the prior patient, due to our differing anatomy. He also explained that he drew a specifically shaped outline before he began so that when the lab analysis of each sample came back, there was a frame of reference for where any additional cells may need to be removed. He got most of the cancer on the first pass and had to take a second flap on one side. Two passes was all it took. Now I got a big ol' honkin' bandage on my nose for two days and then some period of wound care. I opted for the "natural healing" path rather than a stitch or skin graft. The doctor thought that there would be little-to-no difference in appearance doing that, and I prefer the idea of the wound being open until it closes on its own. Fortunately, my cuts & wounds tend to heal quickly.
Hope you heal real quick and have no more issues. The nose is really sensitive I'm sure. Several years ago my sister had an area on one shoulder that needed removed. She was born and raised in San Diego and spent decades out in the sun, looked like a raisin a few times. She healed without any issues. I worked most of my life outdoors and luckily never had any problems. I can tell you there isn't any sun this day ! I went to get my monthly meds and my old truck cranked and ran fine, parked at the drug store and came out 10 minutes later and the thing would hardly start. For a while I thought I would not make it home. I did and I popped the hood and a plug wire had come off and was grounding out on the manifold. It must have been stealing all the voltage from the distributor because I have seen a lot of plug wires off in my time but they were never grounding so the vehicle just ran with a miss, but this was serious and I was worried I still had engine issues after spending so much money this past year. I feel good now :0) You have a great weekend
I spent so much time out of doors most of my life. When I was a kid we camped outside of Ocean City, and every morning at the crack of dawn I would be out crabbing, facing dead east into the rising sun. I've always had curly hair (natural afro), and had a photo booth pic of me as a kid with dark brown skin and a shocking white bleached-out 'fro. I've burned a few times in my late teens and still now at my age gotten the redneck burn out on my tractor. I'm kinda fair-skinned (British mother/German father), but I'm not Edgar Winter, either. I would have been shocked if this had not happened to me at some point, given my history. Funny you mention your truck...just Wednesday I was out and helped a guy push his [floor shift] truck to get it started. He said the bendix was gone, but it sounded lake a bad solenoid to me. Yeh, nothing puts a smile on our faces like thinking we have an expensive issue and then finding out that it's minor. I think there's a life-perspective lesson there.
Whew!...glad thats over...my husband had one removed from his nose and skin graft...oh...7 or more years ago...now new ones popping up...we are trying to keep down with eggplant extract
I'm sorry to hear that. Are the new ones on his nose as well, or are they elsewhere? The only comfort is--as I understand it--they take decades to become problematic. I worked for a woman who was a lifeguard in her teen years, and it seems that every few months she was at the dermatologist having something or other removed. Jen was in her 40s at the time.
I have pre-cancers, sometimes cancer, removed from my nose or ears every year. In my 50s they were all from my mid and lower back. The majority are taken from my nose. With the last one on my nose, I was given the choice of surgery or freezing. I chose freezing which took off most of my nose skin and was deep in places. Not pleasant but better than surgery. The follow-up showed it was all gone. Glad to hear you got it taken off and hope you keep up at least yearly checkups. While most are slow-growing they may be overlooked due to difficult detection, until they become a problem.
I've heard of them freezing it off. I know this was pretty deep...the guy held up a mirror for me to see after he was done. So what kind of follow-up do they do with freezing? When they cut it out with MOS, they do it in bits and put each successive hunk under a microscope until they see no more cancer (or more specifically, they shave off layers until the top of the sample may have cancer cells and the bottom is clean.) Do they do a scraping after the freezing has healed just like the initial biopsy? I'm not certain what I think of it all. My understanding is that skin cancer can take decades before it becomes an issue. At some point I gotta think you just don't mess with it anymore, unless you plan on living to see 100. I gotta ask the dermatologist when I go in for a check-up. I want to know if the cancer I have today is due to exposure as a child, meaning any exposure I get today won't cause issues for the next 30-40 years.
not nose area...he had moh's surgery on that...small ones on temple...below...a couple more.... where we lived in NC...surgery nearby ...here....50 miles or so.....we'll keep at bay...maybe even heal.... clinical studies look promising... oh...I forgot to say...basil cell carcinoma
I asked my dermo the same questions. The answer I got was that while the skin damage is from younger years, it will affect us until we die. Any sun damage we might get now will aggravate that previous damage. So covering up in our old age is still a good idea. I know Lon Tanner continued to see the dermo until he died. His damage was from many years before in New Zealand on the beach. After that big nose freezing 2020, I started to wear a cap while on my long walks, and at this last checkup 2021, no problems on my nose were seen. This is the first time in 10 years no nose precancer was seen. They did find one on my ear that I was unaware was there. When they do the freezing, they freeze way past the visible precancer. They check a month later and they can see and feel if any was missed.