This morning I had surgery for a skin cancer removal. Various types of skin cancer are very prevalent in New Zealand. We spend a lot of our time outside, especially during childhood which is when much of the damage to our skin occurs.
Mine is a Basal cell carcinoma - affecting the skin - which is the most common type of cancer in humans. Luckily, it is very rarely a threat to life.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) typically affects people of fair complexion who have had a lot of sun exposure or repeated episodes of sunburn. The tendency to develop BCCs may be inherited. BCCs can vary in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres in diameter. They usually grow slowly over months or years.
Mohs surgery: Mohs surgery (or Mohs micrographic surgery) is an outpatient procedure in which the tumor is surgically excised and then immediately examined under a microscope. The base and edges are microscopically examined to verify sufficient margins before the surgical repair of the site. If the margins are insufficient, more is removed from the patient until the margins are sufficient.
Luckily I had to have only one layer removed but am home now with a very sore nose and will have two black eyes by the look of it!
Update:
All is going well, no post op complications of any sort. I just look like a racoon thats all!
8 comments:
A friend of mine from Sydney has had a few of those removed over the years. She is now very careful not to sit in the sun, but I suppose the initial damage was doen when she was a young girl back in the 50's and 60's.
Looking like a racoon for a few days seems a cheap price though, don't you think?
hi Allmyke - yes Australians have a similar problem to us with a childhood usually spent in the sun with no sunscreens available in the 50's and 60's.
It's why I slather sunscreened on my fair boys... even in this climate.
Glad the cancer was caught and removed so quickly.
ouch. At least you don't need to worry now. I suppose being in a dreary, dark country has it's advantages.
Hi Ewe and Tismee - The Surgeon who did the operation has only been in NZ for 3 weeks, he is from Hull, UK, and has come here to NZ for two years with his wife and three children.
He is learning how to do MOHS method of skin cancer removal. He said that there are many more cases appearing in the UK now. So your climate is changing too. But then some of his clients in the UK may have spent their early years elsewhere I suppose.
We all put sun screen on our children here now too!
PS I haven't found your country dreary and dark at all! Each of the three times I have been in the UK has been summer, and beautiful summers too!The first was the summer of '69 (they even wrote a song about it), the next 1998 when I came with my daughter and she stayed on at Hull University to do a years Uni exchange, and the last trip was two years ago.
engliosmen and mad dogs go out in the noonday sun...y dad played tennis and had moles, and spotches all over his body, when he died in april of this year, his tiny body was one large mole from his neck to his toes
Glad to hear you are recovering, Mrinz!
Take good care of yourself-- you are precious to me!
xoxo CGF
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