Annual skin cancer thread

[catndahats]

Old faired skinned guy that spent many years in the sun without hats and sunscreen protection in my younger years just passing on a reminder.
Skin cancer sucks.

Take care of your skin, remind our kids and grandkids to take care of their skin.
I've had several skin cancers (basal/squamous cell) removed over the last 20 years, but am sitting here recovering from melanoma surgery on my chest from a freckle that has been there practically all my life. The 22 stitches have really messed with my social and guitar playing calendar as well. The other 20 plus stitches from the bridge of my nose to the top of my head are not fun either. Get your skin checked.

Don't be me.

[freedomfarm]

ouch... I wish you the best and a speedy recovery and I hope you'll soon be back to your guitar playing! I get checked every year, my career is mostly outdoors and I'm a crop farmer at home. Again, I wish you the best on your recovery.

[catndahats]

thanks, SteveH~
Getting checked regularly is key.
I missed a few years during the covid stuff, and now am getting some deferred maintenance...few more surgeries to go. Don't wish this on anyone.
Thank goodness for farmers!

[Dirk Hofman]

Thanks Cat, appreciate the reminder. Sorry for your issues.

[Birdbrain]

Medical care and prevention of skin cancer keep getting better. Four years ago, after removal of a half-dozen basal and squamous tumors, my dermatologist gave me a chemotherapy cream to rub on my head and face. It operated by the same principle as paint stripper, attacking fast-growing pre-cancerous cells. Effective, but very unpleasant. When it came time to repeat this preventive therapy, there was a new solution: photodynamic therapy (PDT). At the office, they rubbed a cream on my face and scalp and gave me eye protection. A massively bright LED light panel was shone on me for 15 minutes, and that was that. It was so much easier and quicker than the old cream, which took weeks to recover from. So if you've heard about that old therapy, know that it's not the only option.

[KenL]

I had the same treatment yesterday that Birdbrain talked about. My fourth time in as many years.

I look and feel like I got my face sunburned. But it works.

I, too, am fair-skinned, and was constantly sunburned in the summertime. I'm paying the price for that now. I had 5 Mohs surgeries last year. My own skin is trying to kill me.

Hang in there, cats, hope you're back to strumming soon!

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by catndahats

Old faired skinned guy that spent many years in the sun without hats and sunscreen protection in my younger years just passing on a reminder.
Skin cancer sucks.

Take care of your skin, remind our kids and grandkids to take care of their skin.
I've had several skin cancers (basal/squamous cell) removed over the last 20 years, but am sitting here recovering from melanoma surgery on my chest from a freckle that has been there practically all my life. The 22 stitches have really messed with my social and guitar playing calendar as well. The other 20 plus stitches from the bridge of my nose to the top of my head are not fun either. Get your skin checked.

Don't be me.

Good luck!

I can offer a maybe funny response for my not so funny malignant skin cancer follow ups.

Last or summer or now maybe the one before in a follow up visit the doctor wanted to remove some more of me for a biopsy. In the exam and then prep his nurse commented on where I had a lot of scars on extremities plus some fresh bruising and scrapes in the context of being an old guy. The doctor told her that is how you identify a mountain biker.

[Jim Owen]

Cat,
I’m 9 years out from that surgery. Thanks for reminding the community. I empathize.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by catndahats

Old faired skinned guy that spent many years in the sun without hats and sunscreen protection in my younger years just passing on a reminder.
Skin cancer sucks...

I've had several skin cancers (basal/squamous cell) removed over the last 20 years, but am sitting here recovering from melanoma surgery on my chest from a freckle that has been there practically all my life. The 22 stitches have really messed with my social and guitar playing calendar as well. The other 20 plus stitches from the bridge of my nose to the top of my head are not fun either. Get your skin checked....

Been in the same situation myself (melanoma/squamous cell) over the last 20 years, and for the same reasons (I literally lived at the beach all summer for the first 25 years of my life) - just got my semi-annual check-up yesterday, waiting for biopsy results on my nose...

Sorry to heat about your facial surgery: I had a butcher (I hesitate to call him a dermatologist... ) who was prepared to perform the same operation until I put the brakes on and, much to his chagrin, sought a second/third opinion, from both a dermatopathologist and a plastic surgeon - both of whom told me the extensive (and lucrative) procedure I was being railroaded into was totally unnecessary...

An in-office excision, followed two weeks later by a skin graft (a patch from behind my right ear), proved not only more successful - the graft site is completely undetectable - but resulted in a far shorter recovery period (the first guy was talking in terms of multiple surgeries over the course of 12-18 months )...

Only downside is that my post-op nose, when fully healed, looked older than the rest of my face - but the mixed blessing is that I'm aging into it...

I don't know what your situation was/is - and unfortunately the horse is already out of the barn - but if you haven't yet done so I can't stress highly enough the necessity of a second (or third, or fourth...) opinion...

Prayers for your speedy recovery...

[Bob Womack]

Yeah, I had an eruption on the back of my ear and had my dermatologist look at it at a regular checkup. He diagnosed a basil cell carcinoma and referred me to a surgeon who specializes in Moh's surgery. Moh's consists of progressively cutting away the lesion in the soft tissue and checking the excised portion under an electron microscope. This is repeated until the excised portion comes up clean. I spent a day at the surgeon, three cuts, and a month with the site recovering. Two years later it looks pretty much normal. For these two years I've been checked all over every quarter for repeats. Early on I had one little eruption in another place that my dermatologist was able to excise in the office in five minutes and that set the quarterly checkup clock back.

But all of this was made much simpler by early detection and treatment. Get a whole-body scan for your own sake.

Bob

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Yeah, I had an eruption on the back of my ear and had my dermatologist look at it at a regular checkup. He diagnosed a basil cell carcinoma and referred me to a surgeon who specializes in Moh's surgery. Moh's consists of progressively cutting away the lesion in the soft tissue and checking the excised portion under an electron microscope. This is repeated until the excised portion comes up clean. I spent a day at the surgeon, three cuts, and a month with the site recovering. Two years later it looks pretty much normal. For these two years I've been checked all over every quarter for repeats. Early on I had one little eruption in another place that my dermatologist was able to excise in the office in five minutes and that set the quarterly checkup clock back.

But all of this was made much simpler by early detection and treatment. Get a whole-body scan for your own sake.

Bob

It is a rotten shame fewer people can't get Moh's style now that more are trained in it. Moh himself was my grandmother's surgeon and customer of her shop. His protégé Dr. Snow is who made the hard to see now hole through my ear. In more recent years I've had far bigger scars just from what insurance will not cover.

It is Medicare sign up time for me and I'm hoping one benefit will be I can go back to the actual/original Moh's clinic after the experience of such different approaches. Also go back to more services from the physician and patient owned coop we had. It's rotten when you've had better care and it gets taken away.

The coop only has 4 clinics but way faster and better about the proactive stuff you mention and sent you to special clinics when needed. Sincerely patient focused vs a factory farm - what a concept!

[catndahats]

A follow up, and thanks for all the replies.
Got my chest stitches out, forehead is still a messy Frankenstein looking thing. Have a couple more months of procedures ahead. Dr. Mohs, and potential radiation doc treatments are not fun.

I chuckled at another thread regarding my demographic (old dude) and when younger promised myself not to end up an old guy that sat around with his friends complaining about ailments---and still try to keep that view of life. My post was a reminder to not ignore an odd spot on your skin, and maybe more to share protecting your skin as well as reminding your kids and grandkids.

As I see it skin cancer is not just an old guy thing...lost a friend years ago to melanoma when he was in his 30's, and personally have experienced skin issues since I was a kid. The melanoma on my chest was completely off my radar the day the doc found it. The surgery removed a small steak sized chunk from my chest, but I am still here and thankful for that aspect. And yes, it messed up my guitar and social calendar.

So, on a more positive note I picked up my 000 last night and played a short while. And it felt and sounded great! It's a awesome day to appreciate all the good things in life. Wishing ya'll the best!

[The Watchman]

Isn't it a shame that with all the people with personal experience in the dangers of skin cancer, the tanning salon industry flourishes and young people cant be convinced tanning isn't a good idea.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by catndahats

and now am getting some deferred maintenance...

Ha me too I had actually been negligent for some 6 years but went in last month
for some "deferred treatment".
The good news it was only the spot freeze with the can of Liquid nitrogen treatment
The bad news there maybe 30-40 spots on face, neck, back, and arms, and I began to wonder why I was sitting there letting the dermatologist torture me over, and over, and over

[Talk2Me]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

Isn't it a shame that with all the people with personal experience in the dangers of skin cancer, the tanning salon industry flourishes and young people cant be convinced tanning isn't a good idea.

Not as much a shame as simple reality. Young people are invulnerable and think they'll live forever in that perfectly working body. There's no "convincing", just educating. But remember the trope about the horse and water too.