I tell you about the surgery not to elicit sympathy from you guys, but to warn all of you to do regular skin checks. It\u2019s so important! And the easiest medical thing you can do for yourself.\u00a0 You just go to the dermatologist, and he or she looks over your whole body. If there\u2019s something you\u2019re worried about, just point it out extra, because you know your own body better than a stranger does! (Duh.)<\/p>\n
Skin cancer can happen to anybody at any time. I haven\u2019t even been in the sun for over a decade, and yet, here I am. But I\u2019m one of the lucky ones because I had some help taking care of the situation.<\/p>\n
![\"My](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/rsz_img_1039-e1524203643784.jpg\")
<\/a>My intact forehead before surgery. That minuscule dot in the bottom middle is where the offending cancer was. Photo by Mr. X.<\/p><\/div>\n
Here\u2019s my journey: About a month ago, I had a facial with Marc Edward in Hollywood. He asked me what a tiny\u00a0dot on my forehead was, and I answered that it was nothing\u2014it had been there for only a few days, and was smaller than a pin head. Marc noticed something else on my collarbone, and made me promise to see a skin doctor that week.<\/p>\n
Never one to break a promise (maybe because my best friend is my Froggy, so I heed the words of the amphibian in\u00a0The Frog Prince<\/em>, who insists, \u201ca promise is a promise,\u201d at least in the version of the story that I<\/em> read when I was little, which has stuck with me forever,) I did just that, a mere three days later.\u00a0 The doc said the one on my collarbone was nothing bad, but took one look at the forehead dot and said we had to biopsy it. (But he didn\u2019t notice it on his own; I remembered to point it out to him. So Marc Edward may have literally saved my life!)<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what I\u2019m saying, people! You have to look-out for yourself! I often notice spots here and there on my pals, especially former (and, unfortunately, current,) sun-worshippers.\u00a0 But the few times I\u2019ve mentioned it to them, they get offended. Why, I can\u2019t understand, but some people like to stick their heads in the sand. If someone tells me<\/em> something, especially about health, I try to heed their advice. None of us see ourselves as others do, so perhaps they\u2019re correct. We all want our friends to let us know if we have spinach in our teeth, so why not be grateful when they suggest that you might have a potentially life-threatening spot on your face? I don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s the second half of my medical advice, which you should also heed. (I was planning on just suggesting skin checks, but I\u2019m on a roll!) You have got to stick up for yourself in all<\/em> medical situations!!! Just about every doctor alive is looking out for his or her self, which took me until recently to realize. Most of them are concerned for their bank accounts and careers<\/em>, not their patients<\/em>. (Unless they\u2019re some noble country doctor, straight out of a Hallmark movie.) So you really have to be vigilant, about\u00a0everything<\/em>! Here are two skin cancer examples:<\/p>\n Right after this recent surgery. (I know I look awful, but I have to publish these pix to show you all to not sit in the sun anymore!) That scar on my nose is from the awful Mohs surgery I had a decade ago! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n When I had skin cancer on my nose, over a decade ago, and was told that I needed Mohs* surgery, I was savvy enough to ask if I should have a plastic surgeon in the room, to close up the incision nicely. But my surgeon, whom I didn\u2019t know, (but was the partner of my basic dermatologist, whom I trusted,) said absolutely not. I\u2019ve been living with that bad decision to listen to him ever since.\u00a0Of course<\/em>\u00a0I should have had a plastic surgeon do the work!\u00a0 The Mohs doc either didn\u2019t want a more skilled guy looking over his shoulder, or there was money involved that he didn\u2019t want to share. Either way,\u00a0I\u2019m<\/em>\u00a0the one who suffered, (and have been doing so ever since!)<\/p>\n So, here it is, all these years later, and I have the same dermatologist. (But not the same Mohs guy, of course.) When he told me that I need this\u00a0new<\/em>\u00a0surgery, I knew enough to assume it would be Mohs again. But my doc said no\u2014he\u2019d<\/em>\u00a0just cut it out and basically hope that he got it all!<\/p>\n The wound, immediately after surgery. Photo by Heather at the surgeon’s office.<\/p><\/div>\n Thank goodness I had time to think that over for a few days, and was brave enough to call him on it. I asked how that would work. He said that after he removes what he thinks<\/em> should be enough, he\u2019ll send it out<\/em> to a lab, and then we\u2019d find-out if he got it all. If not,\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0he\u2019d send me to a Mohs guy.\u00a0 In shock, I asked, \u201cSo I may have to get cut open\u00a0twice<\/em>???\u201d He must have thought better of it when we hung-up, or realized with whom he was dealing, because he called me back ten minutes later and said that he was sending me to a specific Mohs surgeon instead of doing it the way he had been planning to.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>*[Note: Mohs is where they cut away as little as possible, since they have no idea how deep the cancer goes, and look at it under the microscope right then and there. If they got it all with that one layer slice, they close you up. If not, they go down one more layer, and so on until all the cancer is gone. It\u2019s sort-of brutal, if you need more than one layer removed, but it\u2019s all over in one fell swoop.]<\/p>\n<\/a>