I just had Mohs surgery for basal cell on my nose. I am female age mid 50s. It was a small spot about the size of a pencil eraser end. They cut about twice that amount, got it all out in two layers. I have an inch long scar that is so thin and tiny you hardly notice it. Most mohs surgeons also do plastic surgery type procedures when they sew the hole up and sometimes can use a flap grafting procedure. They are very good at what they do, highly trained. The procedure was not bad at all. Six stitches out in a week and just slight redness around the scar that will soon disapear. I also had Mohs on my upper lip after trying many home remedies that just did not work including sunspot. The mohs on my lip was a little more extensive because I let it go too long, but the surgeon did a great job, you can just seen a very fine line about an inch above the lip. With mohs at least you know they got it all. The cutting is really not that bad and really only painful the first day or two after which Tylenol worked fine. The surgery is done with just a local with Lidocaine. You have to get the root out and all the hair follicle like roots or the cancer will come back. Mohs is 98% effective. The trick is to catch the basal cell early enough. I am really pro-mohs especially for areas of the face like the nose or lips. Just don't let it go too long like I did with my lip. I wanted to avoid surgery but now I wish I had gone under the knife sooner. With my nose as soon as I saw the lesion pop up and it started crusting and bleeding, I went in, and had them biopsy sit. It started out as just a raised area, then started to scab, then bleed, go away and then kept coming back.
There are just too many small hairline roots that branch off that you can't always get wtih topical treatments. I would recommend mohs.
So thank God I have good insurance, they covered it 100% with just a 35 dollar copay..
Carlson
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MOHS SURGERY FOR BASAL
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 00:28:47
