PP,
Over the last five years or so, Mrs. P has had probably 30 or more of those slice biopsies and at least 6 Mohs Surgeries like you had. She spent her youth sun tanning religiously with baby oil... The Mohs she had on her left shin was the worst. She ended up having plastic surgery to minimize the scar left by that one. It's been horrific to just be an observer of, so while I can't say I've felt your pain, I can sympathies by caring for someone with skin cancer issues.
I suspect you dermatologist wants to see you frequently now that you've had a bad occurrence. Right?
For now, it's yearly. I guess that could change depending on things go.
My biggest issue is I let it get too big before finally listening to my doctor. I own that. To hear the surgeon immediately mention how big the thing was didn't make me feel great. I can't even tell how many anesthetic injections he had to give me just to remove the patch. It was a lot.
I can definitely relate to putting things off with doctors and dentists alike. I would always wait until I couldn't stand one more minute of the tooth ache then I would
finally make the appointment. But after going through a few of those, with all of them ending in root canals (I've had 7), I found that ultimately I will suffer a
lot less pain if I just contact the dentist the minute anything feels wrong. Even though I've still ended up having to get root canals, I didn't have to deal with taking antibiotics for a week while I try to dull the pain with non-narcotic pain meds. I'm an addict, I can't have any narcotics, I'm allergic to narcotics. Every time I use narcotics I break out in cuffs.
By avoiding going to the dentist to deal with a toothache it ended up costing me a week of having to live with that toothache pain with only Advil or Tylenol to take the edge off while I ran through the course of antibiotics to get rid of the infection and clear the abscess. That was the cost. A week of that suffering. So I stopped avoiding the dentist and it's just
much less painful in the end.
Remember what it felt like during that period of time when you still did not know the results of the biopsy? The not knowing. Considering the possibility that it could be malignant. That had to suck for you. Big time.
Don't forget what it felt like.
I know what that's like having had two liver biopsies to measure the fibrosity of my cirrhosis. Stage 4 means irreversible liver failure is coming at some point; you go on the transplant list. As it turned out I was on the bubble at the high end of the range for Stage 2, not quite high enough to be classified as Stage 3 but close. A manageable condition, but not without symptoms like frequent nausea and vomiting. Now here's the point of telling you all of this: I knew there was something wrong with me
LONG before I ever mentioned anything to the doctors. Had I said something sooner I might not puke pretty much every day at least once. That was the cost of my fear and inaction. And it's a lifetime subscription. Liver cirrhosis doesn't reverse itself and it can't be fixed.
I didn't tell you all that looking for sympathy, I've long made my peace with it. I thought it was worth mentioning after what you just went through. It's a real-life cautionary tale.
These days I don't fuck around when it comes to my teeth or my general health. I eat mostly healthy stuff, exercise every day, no booze, no drugs, although I've been known to puff the peace pipe from time to time. Doctor said I can live to be 100 with this liver but I will probably always have the nausea and vomiting, it's a classic symptom of cirrhosis.
Don't make the mistake of putting off medical and dental stuff. Get out in front of it the minute you can. You'll never regret doing that route. Never. 
Topic: The DTF Old As Mold Club v. 40 IS The New 30! Kids Stay Out! (Read 334220 times)