Those of you who’ve met me in meat space may or may not have noticed I have an unsightly scar on the side of my nose which originated years ago (through zit picking, I’m ashamed to say) and has only become worse through various inflammations, cold induced nose skin damage and so on. It’s not only unsightly but because it becomes inflamed, it’s frequently sore.
So now we have some money to play with, I decided I would get a plastic surgeon to look at it, and my GP happily referred me. To my surprise, the surgeon (who is a very jolly, pleasant guy) said he wanted to do a biopsy as he couldn’t rule the problem being a basal cell carcinoma. So he did the biopsy on Monday, and I went back yesterday to get the results.
Yes, it’s a BCC, and will mean removing quite a large area of skin from around the side of my nose, as well as part of the nares (the flaring bit of the nostril on the outer side.) He will then cover/reconstruct this with a skin flap from the area around the groove at the side of my mouth.
Yes, there will be scarring and it won’t look completely normal. I can’t say I’m thrilled.
On the plus side, it’s not a fatal cancer, I won’t need other treatment, the scarring will flatten and fade, and at least I will have this horrible scar/inflammation dealt with for good.
What kind of astonishes me is that a series of GPs have seen me over the years, and this last one I’ve known for over 6 years, and none of them raised the idea of cancer. Not even my present one who has actually *treated* me for a skin cancer (an intraepithelial carcinoma) just a inch away from the site of this BCC! And has prescribed a chemo cream for other minor lesions *on my face*. I shall be talking to her about this because she’s allegedly monitoring both of us for skin cancers (which of course are common in Australia.) Doug’s just had a few burnt off.
Anyway, this all happens on 11 April. Hopefully I will be fully healed in time to do a road trip to Adelaide in June, which I am increasingly keen to do.
I repeat, I am *not* in any life-threatening danger. I am just pissed off (at myself more than anyone) that if this was caught sooner, I might have got away with much less permanent disfigurement.