Mohs Surgery Done

Cindy and I left at 6 A.M. this morning to make sure we were at Women's College Hospital in Toronto on time for my 8:45 A.M. appointment.  We got there 1 1/2 hours early but you never know how bad traffic will get there.  I hate driving to and in Toronto!!

We checked in and were sent to the waiting room where about 5 or 6 other patients and their family members/friends sat.  Names were called and patients went out only to return about 20 minutes later with huge bandages on wherever their skin cancers were.  This is how the procedure works...the spot is frozen and the surgeon removes a sample for biopsy; you're sent back to the waiting room for about an hour while it is biopsied; if cancer cells are found on the edges they take a deeper sample and you're sent back to wait again.  If no cancer cells are detected on the edges you are stitched up and can go home.

My first sample seemed to show no cancer cells at all but there was evidence of skin cancer on the surface of my face.  When I was called back in they took another, deeper sample just to be sure and then stitched me up.  I was so thankful that it was in the exact spot my dermatologist had used before.

I'm a worrier and had worried for weeks that the surgeon would cut my whole face up taking out pounds of cancer cells.  Sounds stupid but that's how my mind works.  I am so very happy I was wrong and that the surgery is over but I'd do it all again if another skin cancer popped up.  I've had 7 of them so I'm prone to get more, apparently.

Skin cancer is not to be ignored but it's one of the easiest cancers to cure or control.  The 3 forms are basal, squamous, and melanoma.  Mine was squamous and therefore deeper than the basal which is usually just on the surface.  Melanoma is deeper than squamous and much more serious.

It doesn't make sense to me that we Ontarians have only 3 surgeons in the whole province that do Mohs surgery.  Mohs is the only kind of skin cancer surgery done in the States and you know it's done properly the first time you have surgery.  Here in Canada, the dermatologist will often be the first person to try to remove it surgically but they don't have the equipment to do the biopsy right in their office.  If cancer cells remain, it's another visit, another surgery, and another 2 week wait to see if they got it all.  Very inefficient.

I hate having these skin cancers but I'm ever thankful I don't have a worse kind of cancer.  I'm grateful for what is good in my life.