Dept. of Adding Insult to Injury

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Tina2
Tina2 Member Posts: 2,943
edited November 2016 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

I know this is relatively small stuff compared to the larger concerns all of us are dealing with, but I just received a call from my dermatologist with unwelcome news. Last week she had biopsied a pinky-fingertip-size bump by my eyebrow that had been growing slowly for several years. I had assumed it was an ingrown hair and had ignored it until I pointed it out to her. ( My previous dermatologist had not noticed it at a body check two years ago. Nor had my other doctors.) Well, it turns out that this innocuous lump (not pearly, not reddened, not bleeding) is a basal cell carcinoma.

Next step: consulting with a Mohs surgeon. Argh!

Tina


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  • steelrose
    steelrose Member Posts: 3,798
    edited September 2016

    (((Tina))) No small stuff here. This is most unwelcome news. You will overcome though... you have done so well with this nasty bc. I know nothing about skin cancer but tell them to cut it out, and be done!

    Love to you...

    Rose

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  • pajim
    pajim Member Posts: 2,785
    edited September 2016

    Aarrrgghh!! More than you need I'm sure. I have several colleagues who have pieces taken out of their skin on a regular basis. Some pain, big bandages for a week.

    You can do this. Call it "annoying".

    Glad you spotted it and kept after them. . .

    Hugs.

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  • DivineMrsM
    DivineMrsM Member Posts: 9,620
    edited September 2016

    Tina, I can understand how you feel. I hope things go smoothly and you're able to get this taken care of quickly

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  • Kandy
    Kandy Member Posts: 1,461
    edited September 2016

    Dang Tina, like you don't have enough to worry about. Get it taken care of and that will be behind you. Hope all goes well.

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  • exbrnxgrl
    exbrnxgrl Member Posts: 12,424
    edited September 2016

    Tina,

    Well, apparently the powers that be did not listen to my edict of "one type of cancer per person"!

    All kidding aside, it really does seem unfair, but I know it will be taken care of quickly and without further problems.

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  • Heidihill
    Heidihill Member Posts: 5,476
    edited September 2016

    Oh, no! Hope not too much pain.

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  • 50sgirl
    50sgirl Member Posts: 2,527
    edited September 2016

    Well Tina, that really sucks! I hope the basal cell carcinoma is taken care of quickly and painlessly.

    Lynne

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  • Lindalou
    Lindalou Member Posts: 647
    edited September 2016

    Tina,

    Sorry to hear that you have basal cell, but it is an easy although sometimes longer biopsy. I'm the queen of basal and squamous cell skin cancer. I'm very fair and have had too many burns. My last biopsy a month ago counts 22 biopsies since I was 29. My derm was one of the first to perform the Mohs procedure and studied under Dr. Frederic Mohs. It takes a little longer as they keep going until pathology reports a clear margin. I've had over 10 mohs procedures and all have been able to be excised without plastic surgery. Be assured that the mohs micrographic technique is considered the best method for treating certain types of skin cancer because it has a high cure rate( hence the clear margins) None of my mohs procedures have resulted in additional excisions. I wish you well and would go with you if I could. Glad you are getting it done and basal cell is the best of the skin cancers to have.

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  • jensgotthis
    jensgotthis Member Posts: 937
    edited September 2016

    It does seem unfair. I hope it proceeds fairly easily for you.

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  • ABeautifulSunset
    ABeautifulSunset Member Posts: 990
    edited September 2016

    ugh... unfortunatelymany of us take a trip to that department of adding insult to injury (love the name, needed to use it).

    I can chime in as others have said. Most likely an easy fix, but what a pain in the ass for you to have to deal with.

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  • RonnieKay
    RonnieKay Member Posts: 2,067
    edited September 2016

    I love Caryn's "one type cancer per person!" remember those buttons you'd hit from Staples that said, "That was easy!".....I'm hoping you can say that....AND...have them do a strip search for any other spots hiding out!!!

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  • Tina2
    Tina2 Member Posts: 2,943
    edited September 2016

    Thanks, all, for the support. Lindalou, your story is both remarkable and reassuring. I'm quite fair as well, and gave up trying to tan after a blistering burn or two in my teens. (Kids are SO dumb.) Now I usually wear sunscreen and a hat while gardening or playing in summer sun. However, one's face is always hanging out exposed to the elements, so chances of getting a skin cancer there increase with age. And few think to apply sunscreen for running around in the city. I admit I don't.

    Saw the Mohs surgeon today. He's young and clearly a superstar, with many rave reviews, and offers lots of good info on his website. His nurse answered all the questions I had before he even entered the room. All he had to do was check out the site, mark the area so I could see what he thinks he'll cut out, and tell me that the cosmetic result will not be readily visible to anyone but me in about six months. Can't ask for much more than that.

    I really liked this doctor and his staff. Since I'll be traveling next month, I'll have the surgery early in November.

    Tina

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  • Lindalou
    Lindalou Member Posts: 647
    edited September 2016

    Tina, So glad you like your Mohs surgeon. Mine is a hoot and tells me all sorts of derm stories while working on me. Oh those blistering suntan days. I was a lifeguard and used baby oil to get 'tan'...how stupid was that? All I did was burn! Yes to sunscreen and hats!! Good luck and tell us how it went.

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  • babs6287
    babs6287 Member Posts: 2,021
    edited October 2016

    Tina I managed a derm practice for 4 years. Mohs is a VERY easy procedure - just takes a long time due to them going in layer after layer until they get good margins. And thank god it was basal cell, not anything more!!

    Annoying but easily doable. I've had quite a few. When I was young my best friends were the sun, baby oil and iodine.and the reflector!!!!

    Let us know how it goes

    Babs

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  • Kandy
    Kandy Member Posts: 1,461
    edited October 2016

    Tina, so glad you found a surgeon that is not only good but you really like him. This is annoying but I'm sure you will do great. Just a little bump in the road. Wishing you the best

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  • Lita57
    Lita57 Member Posts: 2,437
    edited October 2016

    In my experience (I'm fair-skinned Northern European, too), most dermatologists are the BEST doctors. The ones I've seen over the years have all been very personable, thorough, AND entertaining.

    I've had a couple of "pre-cancerous" skin growths frozen off before. I have noticed that a couple of moles on my back have gotten REALLY dark since I started chemo. Has anyone experienced that before? My husband was putting analgesic cream on my back a while ago (because of pain from the bone mets), and he noticed that one of them has gotten bigger, too.

    My MO is on vacation, and the next time I see her, I'm going to ask her about when I can schedule a visit w/the dermatologist to get these reviewed. Hopefully I won't be another statistic in "The Dept. of Adding Insult to Injury."

    Lita


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  • Lindalou
    Lindalou Member Posts: 647
    edited October 2016

    Lita, It would be good to make a derm appt. soon. I had two moles removed close to where I had radiation and they were classified as atypical moles. Luckily not melanoma. Especially if yours have changed it needs to be looked at.

    Babs, Because of all my skin cancer, my dermatologist and I used to go to the high school where I taught, and we would educate the high school students about the dangers of bed tanning and also sun exposure. Many liked to use the beds before Prom especially. Oh I remember Iodine too along with cocoa butter. Good grief!

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  • artistatheart
    artistatheart Member Posts: 2,176
    edited October 2016

    Add another to the iodine and baby oil users....yipes. sorry you have to go through another procedure Tina but glad they found it!

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  • Bestbird
    Bestbird Member Posts: 2,818
    edited October 2016

    So sorry that you've had to add yet another procedure to your list, and hope it goes quickly with clear margins and no scar!

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  • JeninMichigan
    JeninMichigan Member Posts: 2,974
    edited October 2016

    Tina

    Glad you got it checked out. I too have had my share of "skin" issues now to address. Because Melanoma and BC are related, it is important to keep up on skin checks. I have just had my second spot of atypical cells - one of them being a sarcoma - removed from my leg and back. Seriously I dreaded getting it done and hate the whole process. On your face they have to do a different method because of scarring so I was lucky mine wasn't on my face and I just add another scar to my road map of them. It seems like when you already go through so much, you should get a free pass on the other stuff. Wish it really worked that way!!! Good luck to you.

    Jen

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  • Kattysmith
    Kattysmith Member Posts: 738
    edited October 2016

    I had Mohs surgery on my cheek two years ago for *something* I had ignored for months and months (and months...) that turned out to be basal cell carcinoma, and it went really well. Local anesthetic. I told my surgeon that she sewed a fine seam. I have a dashing curving scar - it was a long incision, but it is almost imperceptible; the light has to hit it at just the right spot, even on my old skin without makeup. I'm sure on top of everything else this seems huge, but I'm betting you will sail through it. Let us know how everything turns out!

    Lita, I agree about dermatologists. Mine made me go see her personal surgeon the next day after an appointment with her to check out some "fatty lumps" that were presenting on my arms among other spots. Turned out to be my old breast cancer from 2003...this was last year.

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  • Tina2
    Tina2 Member Posts: 2,943
    edited November 2016

    Update: We went to England for a wonderful three-week trip. Enjoyed new experiences in places we'd never visited, met up with old friends, and saw a lot of theatre in London. Returned home in time for my Faslodex treatment and had MOHS surgery yesterday. It went as well as it possibly could have! The surgeon "got it all" in the first pass, so I was out of his office in about four hours.

    The wound before it was sewn up looked like an off-center medium-size bullet hole in my forehead- like one of those fake corpses in an NCIS pathology scene, shot by a nearsighted bad guy. I took the pressure bandage off this afternoon, and am icing the site and taking Advil and Tylenol. Swelling and bruising are not bad at all. I am grateful for the order to "be a couch potato for 48 hours," but I am eager to get back to bopping around. The steristrips come off Monday, so then I'll see how prominent the scar is. Glad that's over!

    Thanks for your support, my friends.

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  • Lindalou
    Lindalou Member Posts: 647
    edited November 2016

    Hi Tina!

    So glad your MOHS surgery went well and sounds like you had a wonderful time in England! I love it when I hear one of us has traveled. I think you will find that the scar will heal well. Best to you.

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  • Tina2
    Tina2 Member Posts: 2,943
    edited November 2016

    Thank you, Lindalou!

    Tina

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  • intothewoods
    intothewoods Member Posts: 449
    edited November 2016

    Great news to hear! The trip and surgery! Thanks for the update.

    Whoo!

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  • pajim
    pajim Member Posts: 2,785
    edited November 2016

    Glad the trip was fun! That's way more important than the surgery (even though I'm glad it didn't kick your butt).

    Any really good theater? I keep swearing that I'm going back to London but it's not on the schedule for next year.

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  • Tina2
    Tina2 Member Posts: 2,943
    edited November 2016

    Pam,

    Go to London now! The dollar's in a good position!

    We saw a silly farce, "The Play That Went Wrong" (Monty Python meets Benny Hill); Pinter's "No Man's Land," which was excellent; "The Adding Machine," a clever new musical of a 1920s play; "The Entertainer," which was wrong-headedly directed; a new musical, "A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer," which was inventive and promising, but not yet ready for prime time, and my personal favorite: a brilliant new play: "Oil."

    Tina

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