there are three skin cancers
read my old blogs on this explaining the three skin cancers
in order of which would you would choose if you had to choose one
basal cell
squamous cell
melanoma
now
melanoma is the worst to get
thats the one that jimmy carter had that he took a new experimental drug that may have cured his metastatic melanoma which has a cure rate of near zero
it will usually start as a black dark mole
sometimes even when its discovered and biopsied and diagnosed well its too late
my youngest patient with this was 19 years old
it was on her ear
she now is a mid 40s mother of 3 kids and works full time
the youngest of my patient to die from metastatic melanoma was a 35 year old who thought he was cured since his lung melanoma metastic cancer had gone away so he adopted a new newborn
he died a few months later
the next is squamous cell cancer
it usually doesnt become metastatic but it can
someone i know not my patient had one removed from her head then months later her lymph nodes became enlarged
she had to undergo major removal of the lesion on her head with skin grafting to cover up the hole then a neck dissection on the side where the neck lymph nodes were
then she underwent radiation treatment followed by chemotherapy
she now just had another larger squamous cell removed from her head with mohs surgery
then the next is basal cell
thats mine
basal cell does not go metastatic like the others do
but if left alone it will slowly chew up the surrounding tissues
in medical books ive seen folks who have their noses invaded and jawbones and skull
this is the least invasive one though
catch it early and its curable
whats the common thread on these 3 skin cancers
well
its
the sun
i grew up outside
commonly as a kid i would run around with no shirt just shorts
it was not uncommon to be so dark in the summer that it was hard to tell what race i was
as i grew older it was sports and fishing and gardening and running and bicycling
it slowly does it damage
in this blog two years ago i wrote about my mohs surgery of the nose for basal cancer
i put a comical twist to it calling it moses surgery
read it for a smile and to know what mohs surgery is
lucky for me it only took one cutting before all of it was removed
i said many times i sure dont want to have that done again
well
here i am doing it again
a small area bled on my nose like a pin prick would
i thought i had scratched myself
then the bleeding came back
there was no lesion to be seen
so
back to the dermatologist i went
i knew it was basal cell again
i knew i would have to have the mohs surgery again
so
yesterday i had phase one
there i sat all day long
doing 1st biopsy
nope theres still some left
doing 2nd biopsy
nope theres still some left
doing 3rd biopsy
nope theres still some left
doing 4th biopsy
nope theres still some left
doing 5th biopsy
yep its all gone
i asked
so now will i be like a whale with a blowhole on my nose
nope they said
tomorrow you will come back and since your blowhole is so large now you will have to have a skin graft to cover the hole or maybe skin flaps combined with a skin graft
where you gonna take it from i asked
probably your face near your jawline
i thought for a second
you mean im gonna have to shave my nose now
they chuckled
no
we will take it back where there is no beard
this guys either funny or weird im sure they thought
so here i sit this morning
waiting till later today to get my blow hole covered up
never
ever
i hope not
to have to do this again
im thankful its not melanoma or squamous cell
i guess
my advice
look at your kids and your grandkids and your nephews and nieces
if they have tan lines then someone is not protecting their skin very well
my skin cancers are from skin i damaged when i was a kid and from continued exposure as i aged
even now
i wear a big floppy hat and use stronger sun screen
but
i realize it may not prevent recurrence of a new one since the damage has been done
think about this today for yourself and your kids
the organicgreen doctor
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