Basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer)

I should also point out that I now have to get my skin examined every 6 months to see if it pops up anywhere else.

It's on the left side of my face, in my sideburn, right by my ear. Not a fun area to have something dug out of your face.

Also, this might be why I've taken a little longer than usual to respond to emails and post moderation requests recently.  

Glad you had it taken care of.  I should get myself checked again too.  I'm always suspected that it appears more on the left side due to driving, but who knows.

I'm always suspected that it appears more on the left side due to driving, but who knows.

That's my thinking as well. I do most of the driving and was almost always the driver at work too.

We have a wonderful doctor and he handles the minor surgery right there in his office. For several years I was having one removed every two months or so but it has tapered off lately. All three kinds: basal, squamous, and melanoma, mostly on my chest, back and arms. Only two call backs because the biopsy showed it wasn't quite excised - for those two there was blood all over the place because he really dug deep. 

I check my front and legs after every shower, and Vicki checks my back. Some of them come on slowly and some pop up fast, so a daily check is not excessive. 

I slather on the sun screen and wear a very wide brimmed hat, but the damage was done decades ago in my much younger years on a survey crew in Fort Lauderdale. The top of my left ear is badly sun damaged.

Got an appointment for the end of this month to get looked over.  Started making it a yearly thing last year.  

I have an awesome doc who cuts, freezes, and scoops every six months or so for the last eight years. Basal cell should be as 'harmless' as cancer gets, but it will kill you if you don't stay on top of it.

Glad you are taking care of it Wendell. Stay well.

 This was me 4 years ago with Effudex (sp?) treatment. It's a topical cream that they tell me attacks and removes pre-cancerous sun-damaged skin cells over a few weeks. I had it on my hands and arms too. I quit the treatment a few days early. It was just too painful but it sure beats skin cancer. Big floppy hats and long sleeves since then. 

I misspent my youth building and repairing swimming pools starting at age 14 and some days I wouldn't even take a shirt with me to work.   Baked a dark brown every summer from the waist up starting with fair skin.  I've done the Effudex treatment once and I imagine I can expect a lot more of that plus the knife plus nitrogen freezing in my future.  My sister is a dermatologist so she keeps me in line now.  A hat and long sleeves are my friend.  One thing I'll never have to worry about is sun damage on my legs.  They are as lily white as can be and always have been.

My sister's patients always walk out of her office with a wound of some kind.  When she first cut me, I made up a fantastic story about how it could have happened and she requested more stories so she could pass them out to patients or let them pick one out of a hat as the reason for their wounds.  Here is today's installment.

I left a birthday party late one night and was walking home.  As I was crossing the street, a motorcycle gang came roaring up, revving their engines and making a big racket.  As I looked closer, I saw that they were actually midgets on motorcycles and they had drywall stilts strapped to their feet so they could operate the big bikes and hold themselves up while stopped.  That looked funny and I started smiling and then I saw their leather vest badges.  Their bike gang was The Rumpelstiltskins and they wore no shirt except for the wrinkled black leather vests like the cat had slept on it.  I couldn’t help myself and started giggling at them so they started riding around me in a circle, revving their motors and trying to look menacing.  They looked so much like the Shriners on parade I was laughing even harder so they stopped their bikes in a circle around me, holding themselves up with their stilts and dismounted.  As they walked over to me, looking me right in the eye with their enhanced height, I had a stroke of brilliance.  I said, ‘wait a minute, I can speak to you guys in your own language” whereon, I untied the knot on my birthday party balloon, inhaled the helium and started singing the Oompa Loompa song in a super funny high voice.  I lasted about 3 seconds before I fell over laughing so hard and holding my stomach.  The midget bikers on stilts kicked me with their stilts until I was battered and torn and that’s how I got these injuries.

Thanks for the reminder Wendell. I'm fair complected and go to the dermatologist every year and get something or other frozen off. I try to remember to wear a hat and sunscreen but at least once a year I get burned due cloudy days turning sunny or something similar. Anyway, reminders are good.

Gregg

With the last couple of years the dermatologist went by the wayside.  I'm scheduled next month, two and half years in one appointment.  I'll be a mess from the waist up.  Well more of a mess then usual.

I've been going to a dermatologist for screenings every winter when things slow down and so far so good.  I bought a boonie hat last year as well which has been great.  I sure like a nice tan but definitely need to be smarter about it.

I'll be honest, this and ticks made me want to limit my time outside working.  Started about 10 years ago when I first became a dad.  Probably what got my fascination with laser scanning and drones going.

like some, I'm on the 6mo plan.  Grew up on the water and was 20 as lifeguard in Hawaii when sunscreens were marketed by Hawaiian Tropic with hula dancers, and adult beverages.  Damage was already done and paying now.

I had a melanoma on my face about 10 years ago.  The dermatologist caught it EARLY.  It was Stage 1A.  Less than 1 mm thick.  I was on 4 times a year then 3 times a year and now once a year.  I almost never leave there with all the skin that I went in with.

He found the melanoma when I went in to have a BB removed from my cheek that had been there for 40+ years.  I couldn't have an MRI on my knee with the copper coated steel BB still there.  Being in the wrong place 50 years before may have saved my life.

Andy

News reports today say tissue removed from Biden recently was basal cell carcinoma.

A great Public Service Announcement @Wendell . I’ve been on the every-six-months checkup for about 20 years. It’s my weight loss program. Why diet and exercise when the dermatologist is going to cut or burn chunks of your hide off twice a year? It seems that surveyors now wear shadier hats ( ball caps like I always wore just don’t do it) and use sun block. I never did and have paid the consequences.

After all of my years in the field, I have yet to have (knock on wood) any sort of skin problems as a result of UV exposure but did suffer from another form of UV danger.

Nine years ago, at the age of 50, on my way to work, I notice that reading road signs until I was right on top of them was getting to be a problem. I figured that it might be allergies or something else and monitored it for a few weeks until I had a scheduled Doctor's appointment.

When I saw my Doctor, I explained when I was experiencing and he checked both eyes with a scope, telling me that I had cataracts in both eyes and referred me to a specialist. When I went to the specialist, he questioned me extensively on what I did for a living and if I wore polarized UV resistant sunglasses, and I did not, if fact, I rarely wore sunglasses at all. The specialist told me that he is 100% certain that the lack of protecting my eyes from the sun was the reason that I had that problem at that age. I know walk around with fake lenses in both eyes.

Protect your eyes as much as you do your skin!!

I've got the big floppy hats, and I go to the dermatologist once a year. They always find something to hack off. So far, no cancer.

It's interesting to hear about cataracts and sun damage. I don't wear sunglasses much, yet the eye doctor tells me I have no signs of cataracts at all. I put that down to wearing contact lenses, even if I would have perfect vision the doctor says I might sill benefit from wearing them since I have an eye condition that is protected by contacts.

I had a 2cm tumor removed from my neck via MOHS surgery. Doctor did his own pathology real-time, and is also a qualified plastic surgeon, so you have to look carefully to see a scar. While I was in the chair, we were chatting, and he told me, "ya know -this damage was done 30 years ago?". So I asked if hat & sunscreen was worth it now? He said that "it can't hurt, but....".