welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Monday, May 20, 2019

mohs and more

MOHS AND MORE
I hope that writing this blog will alert someone about a skin cancer they were ignoring or were not aware was a skin cancer

I have already had one person send me a picture after hearing of my recent experience with mohs surgery for my basal cell skin cancer

as I looked at the picture I thought im glad I did my post on it
the picture he sent was of a lesion on his face that looked like a basal cell skin cancer
I suggested he see a dermatologist to have this lesion checked

what I didn't tell him was how big the hole would be when they removed it
but
if done by a good skilled person the scar would not be too bad
but
at least he would be cured

now basal cell like he probably has and like the one that I had twice on my nose
doesn't metastasize like melanoma or like squamous cell skin cancer can do
it the basal cell instead just spreads slowly like a turtle sometimes all under the skin
where you cant tell its doing its destruction
that's what mine did
it was a turtle

last august I had this small speck of blood on my nose that went away the next day
I thought I had scratched my nose
I have sun damaged skin with some superficial blood vessels so I thought I had just scratched one of them
I take aspirin and take several supplements that thin the blood

then it did it again
I made an appointment to have it checked
then mr h got sick and I canceled putting it off
then later weeks later it did it again
it was the holidays
I put it off
then I had to have cataract surgery
then I put it off
then I had to have my cataract surgery redone
then I put it off
then my iritis flared up big time
then I put it off

it bled maybe 3 or 4 times but only for a day then it was gone
there was just normal looking skin on the nose
then
it bled again
ok I said you've put it off too long
you know this is just how it started two years ago when you had to have mohs surgery for basal cell cancer of the nose
of course this one was in a different part of the nose from where I had had the mohs surgery before
so
I knew it was  a different one

lucky the day I went in the nose had bled so it was easily marked for them to biopsy
so
they numbed the nose and took a 2 mm biopsy to be sure

that's procedure #1

I went ahead and scheduled the mohs surgery before the biopsy came back
yes the report was positive for basal cell
so
they numbed me up and did a biopsy
there was residual left
so they repeated this again and again and again and again and again
until it was all gone

that was procedure #2

what was left was a big ole hole I call the blowhole
my wife she calls it my pot hole
of course ms squeamish hasnt even seen what it looks like
I have spared her
plus
I didn't want to pick her up off the floor

the next day
I saw a plastic surgeon  who said oh my
you have a big ole blowhole there

since you have all this scar tissue here is what I recommend
filet the nose those are my words not his like a fish and lift up the skin
then sit it back down and sew it in place to sit for a couple of weeks to increase the blood supply to the area
then
in two weeks you come back and will move that flap around to cover up your blowhole or pot hole as your wife she calls it

the defect is big and it is down into the cartilage of the nose so I think this will give you the best result
a skin graft wont work well since you have exposed cartilage
or
we could do a flap off your forehead and attach it over your blowhole or pot hole
I read about that one and saw pictures from the internet

no
I said I don't want that one unless I just have to

so
I went with what he did as I described above
so
next week I go in to have the 4th step done to close up my blowhole

so I did procedure #3 to filet my nose and sew it in place
then
I will have procedure #4 to move that flap over the blowhole

the worst parts beside the initial pain was having to stay down for a few days and he requested that I don't do any gardening
well
I thought to myself that's not going to happen but I kept it to myself

now
Im telling you all this stuff so that maybe you can learn a lesson at my expense so that this doesn't happen to you

if you see a lesion that bleeds looks too dark or youre worried get it check
if it needs biopsied
get it done and don't wait

if you wait to fix it it can get more complicated like mine did the second time
the first mohs I had done took one biopsy then a simple flap with repair
why
I went in as soon as I saw it on my nose

this time
it took me over 6 months before I went it
thus
all the work and lost time doing what I like to do I have had to deal with

so
my advice
don't wait

the organicgreen doctor

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