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What is better for treatment of basal skin cancer radiation or Mohs?
Skin Health | Last Active: Jan 21 9:10pm | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
I was dx’d recently with Basel Cell Carcinoma on my upper nose very close to one of my eyes. A Dermatologist office did the biopsy. I wasn’t told it’s any particular type. In fact I have had a rough time getting back in touch with the Dermatologist about it. They set me up to have a Mohs surgery done on it to remove it. Then they want me to drive to a different location of theirs to have an Oculoplastic Surgeon close it up. They have been talking about wanting to do it with a graft. It’s very small compared to a soft tissue Sarcoma I had removed on my upper leg a few years ago where I had to have a Wound Vac to help it close up. I’m beside myself with stress due to having to drive 3 hrs just to get to their Dermatology office and my husband is 76 years old and he does all the driving and we aren’t familiar with the city where it’s at. I mean we have already been to their dermatology group but we are only familiar now with where “they” are at. I had a soft tissue Sarcoma removed from my upper thigh 3 years ago by the same hospital group and they removed it and repaired it all in one hospital visit (it was a large grade III) so I fail to understand why their Dermatology group told me that I would have to have 2 different surgeries at 2 different locations on the same day. I’m trying to get answers but like I said it’s been difficult communicating with this hospital group many times (I should’ve asked these questions when I was at the Dermatologist office but I didn’t think to and it’s not the first time I’ve had to deal with this communication problem with all of them over the years.) I also joined a Sarcoma Study Group with this hospitals Redcap team in the past year and they took 5 vials of blood from me on a home visit they did and I have yet to receive any lab results to do with that when I was expecting I would and phone calls to them have been getting me nowhere. I’m pretty depressed & frustrated.
Replies to "I was dx’d recently with Basel Cell Carcinoma on my upper nose very close to one..."
I'm seeing this and replying about three weeks after you made your post. I hope your situation turned out ok or is about to. My eye doctor found a basal cell carcinoma on my right lower eyelid a couple years ago. The biopsy said it was a BCC and she referred me to their dermatology department which was 60 miles away in Sacramento. I eventually had a response and an appointment from them for surgery two months away. The letter said it would be a MOHS surgery at one location with reconstructive plastic surgery about two miles away with a second surgeon. As the growth looked pretty small to me I didn't think it would be a big deal. I have also had at least a half a dozen BCCs removed by office surgery over the years and a major surgery for large melanoma on my back 30 years ago. The MOHS surgery took 3 goes at it to get a clear margin and went pretty well. Even the chair was plush and comfy. Not seeing a mirror, I didn't realize most of my lower eyelid was gone. My daughter drove me to the second place, after stopping at Micky D's for lunch. The second surgeon stunned me with the news that my right eye would be stitched for 6 weeks. I was kind of pissed that I hadn't explored what was going on earlier. This was in the middle of the pandemic so I kept my mask on and suffered through two more hours of somebody taking skin and flesh from my upper eye lid to reconstruct my lower eye lid, all in the most uncomfortable chair I'd ever been in. The right side of my face looked like I had been beaten with a bat or something. It dripped blood for a couple days causing my wife to panic and call the doctor's office several times. It was a miserable 6 weeks with no depth perception I can't see that it ever happened and my other eagle eyed daughter from out of town can't tell it happened. Radiation, as far as I know was never an option but I would have gone for surgery anyway. Good luck.
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Hi @liv38556, I just wanted to check in on you. At the time of this last post, you were very frustrated and somewhat deflated with the run around you were getting. Did you have the MOHS surgery? How are you doing?