Gold Canyon, Arizona

I spent yesterday morning at a doctor’s office getting a small basal cell carcinoma removed from the side of my forehead.

It was a minor procedure for the most common kind of skin cancer. The procedure, called MOHS (named after the doctor who invented it), is a micrographic surgery that most effectively removes the cancer with the least amount of invasion.

The doctor removes a section of skin and subcutaneous tissue which is then immediately tested to make sure that no cancer is at the boundaries of the removed section. If cancer is at the edge, a subsequent procedure is done and tested. This is repeated until no cancer is at the edge. The patient waits in a room until the pathology report comes back perfect.

I have no idea what my results look like because I’m all bandaged up, but I’m guessing it’s similar to this photo except my hole is further up my forehead.

The cool thing is that I might get a black eye! This depends on if the blood pools under my eye. If it does, I’ll post an update. 🙂

Here’s my face the morning after.

The bad thing is that I’m not supposed to exercise for a week. A WEEK!

I might have to locate an infrared sauna and sit in it so that I can sweat. There’s something so cleansing about a great sweat session…