Mohs Surgery

I am of northern European extraction, primarily Irish and German, so I am pretty fair-skinned. But I am also an older woman and back in my youth no one wore sunscreen. Add to that the fact that I was a competitive swimmer most of my life up to the age of 53 and that means I have been out in the sun not only a lot but often in sun environments that are harsher than the norm. South Texas is pretty brutal with very little cloud cover, California has sun most of the time, Utah has less sun though not by much, but where we lived was around 4600 feet above sea level so the natural filters for sunlight were fewer.

Anyway, my body is sort of the gift that keeps on giving for dermatologists. I am lucky enough to not have had melanoma yet (though a sister did), but I have a constant battle with squamous and basal cell carcinomas. The squamous cell ones are no big deal at all but the basal cell ones, while usually slow growing and not quick to metastasize, do spread if allowed to grow. I went to a dermatologist here on 10/2 simply to establish a relationship in my new home and have my body mapped. I had been to my previous dermatologist in Utah in April so didn't expect there to be any surprises.

That's why my scheduled Mohs surgery is a shocker. I have a basal cell carcinoma under my right nostril that needs more attention. The doctor here cut off and out a great deal in order to send tissue to the pathology lab but she says I need to get the Mohs expert in to complete the job. Not at all what I was expecting. I feel like calling my old doctor and asking him to review his notes.