Hmm? . I had mohs without first having a biopsy. The Mohs IS the biopsy and the pathology labs all happening while you hang out waiting to see if they got out all the cancer. Yes, those facial cancers are ouchy, and often need a plastic surgeon. I was suprised at how tough it was for the first week after my Mohs just underneath my eye near the nose. More stitches than expected and it swelled and affected my vision and was impossible to bandage well.
Glad you got it taken care of and are healing!!!
(And i’ve been here since 2002 or early 2003, I think. Kids are 29 and 25, one back in grad school. I hang out here so I can read all the retirement and wedding threads!!!)
Good luck to you, runnersmom. Hope it’s all smooth sailing going forward.
I know I shared my basal stories/Moh’s surgeries on several threads. From my first scab on the side of my nose to 8 months later for surgery, I had a hole almost down to the cartilage, the size of a pencil eraser. It took 3 passes to get clean margins. The derm took a flap (like a peninsula) from my cheek and covered the hole. 60 stitches under and 60 more to close. Derm said most people wait 2-3 years and lose their nose. 13 years later it looks great! He still doesn’t like how it looks, but with my glasses no one notices.
As a reminder, if you have other scabs that bleed and fall off, then return, make an appt with the derm. Don’t wait for your 3, 6, or 12 month checkup. Get yourself checked every year.
Surprised to hear of scars from biopsies. I have had many punch biopsies with no scarring at all, even on my face.
I’m told it’s easier that this was wide, not deep. However, I will no longer wait months if any lesions on my skin bleeds. We’ll see how things go tomorrow. Thanks for all the good thoughts and success stories. Right now it’s all covered by a bandage and I have no desire to look. It’s throbbing, but more than manageable with Tylenol. Now, since I usually sleep on my stomach with my face basically plastered into a pillow, tonight should be interesting!
Glad it was caught early runnersmom. Keep Calm and Sleep well 
@anxiousmom I suppose if your derm was pretty convinced that the lesion was BCC you could start with Mohs. The issue would be if the first biopsy of the tissue under Mohs indicated it was melanoma or SCC, then you’d have to switch gears and do a more traditional excision. I have never heard of a Mohs being done without a biopsy and I cannot think of why a doctor would not want to have a biopsy before deciding if Mohs is appropriate. Plus I wonder if an insurance company would pay for Mohs without a biopsy since it is so expensive.
Runnersmom, thank you for sharing your story and sending good vibes for continued healing and good health. What you say is absolutely true and this place - CC - ranks right up there in value as Google itself!!!
Thank you for posting Runnersmom. Best wishes and good health! My FIL is going through the same procedure currently. It’s close to his eye, which is somewhat dicey, but he is hanging in there.
Runnersmom, I was the one who mentioned the pearly looking bump on my face. I’m SO glad you remembered it and got your “bump” biopsied.
They did 2 swipes of MOHs to get mine. Because it was so close to my eye, there was no soft tissue to graft. Skin graft was taken from behind my ear. It’s not pretty to look at for awhile but it gets better. The surgeon told me that it would take 6-9 months for optimum healing. It’s been eight months now. It looks pretty good. Of course I still notice it but DH says nobody else would. Yay, for makeup!
I can seem to wean myself off CC! Have been on here for 10 years! Started when S1 was a high school senior. He’ll be 28 next month and S2 is 25…yikes!
Thank you PackMom, I don’t know if I would have been as motivated to check it out if I had not read your story. I should have been more proactive, having had a basal removed from my lower leg a few years ago, but sticking my head in the sand is a specialty of mine. Sleeping was a little touch since every time I turned to snuggle my face into the pillow I woke up, but such is life. I had knee surgery last year and that was infinitely more difficult since I could not sleep on my side or stomach. Errands early today, then off to the plastic surgeon to see what he thinks.
Hope you heal quickly! I also posted on the earlier thread (had 2 passes done at the end of Oct, also on my nose)–now I am on the tail end of a course of Efudex on my entire face to kill the nasty AKs and any superficial Basal Cells. Not fun but hopefully I am avoiding surgery for the foreseeable future!
And I second the motion that if you see anything suspicious–get it checked sooner rather than later.
Well, after today you can be sure I won’t be waiting 10 minutes if I see something out of the ordinary. I just got home from a long 4 hours with the plastic surgeon. I look a little like Frankenstein, but he assured me it will all heal. He took the skin graft from my hairline and some cartilage from my ear. He then sewed it all onto the round (or will now be round) side of my nostril and topped it off by sewing a lovely yellow bandage-type of thing right on top. I go back Monday to have the stitches out of my forehead and nose - the ear sutures dissolve. To be honest, I really had no idea it would need to be this extensive - when they took the basal cell off my leg it just healed, but I guess the face is more difficult - I wouldn’t want the divot that’s on my leg on my face. It’s going to be a long week, but then things should be looking better.
Sending best outcomes to you all who are experiencing these little but maybe major tests. May all the outcomes be negativr
Wishing you the best, runners mom. I have had two basal cell surgeries, and know despite the superficiality it is rather hard on the sense of self. And this a reminder for me to get in for a check up, as an insurance change made me loose my regular dermatologist.
Frederick E. Mohs, a general surgeon, developed the Mohs Micrographic Surgery technique (MMS) while he was a medical school student at UW-Madison. He died in 2002 at the age of 92.
btw- to all who don’t recognize M…85’s avatar. It’s the back of one of the signature metal chairs found on the terrace behind the Memorial Union looking over Lake Mendota at the UW-Madison campus. They come in orange, yellow and green. They were there in my time and likely will be there forever.
Best wishes for fast healing, runnersmom! It’ll get worse before it gets better… I think day 3 was the worst for me, but mine was nowhere near as extensive as yours. Hope it heals quickly!
I also started a skin cancer thread when I had a basal spot on my neck. My Dr told me it didn’t look anything like skin cancer, but I just knew (it was small with black dots). Unfortunately, I was right.
Now, I believe I see a tiny black dot on my cheek that is very similar. I don’t want to ignore it, but I guess you can’t have them digging into every darkened dot on your body (I have a ton of freckles/moles/age spots. It’s just bigger than pencil lead, but the color is much darker than all my other “spots”.
I need to go for a mole check. I guess I’ll discuss it with her then. Thinking about a job change and this has really worried me. I am a very slow healer (the spot on my neck is still very pink/angry looking after 6 weeks), so I’m worried about my face.
For some reason, the stuff that dermatologists do to me always takes a really long time to heal and fade.
I’m pretty sure I’m an alarmist at this point, but to me it’s worth checking out anything your gut tells you isn’t right. A friend’s husband’s dermatologist “froze off” a suspicious looking growth and told him it was “fine.” Another MD friend suggested he have someone else look at it and it was a melanoma. He’s since had surgery and is fine, but gee, it goes to show how hard it is to know sometimes. As far as my face is concerned, I assume things are healing, but I can’t tell since he sutured the bandage to my face. The graft sites only hurt when I inadvertently touch them, so I think all is fine. Stitches come out tomorrow and I’m lucky we scheduled it around noon, since the mega storm is rolling into our area. My next goal is that the graft is taking - I’ve been sick since this happened with a nasty virus and unable to take anything that might constrict blood vessels, but I am a little concerned that all the coughing etc. might have disrupted something. Oh well, we’ll know tomorrow.