I trusted my instincts and asked David Kriegel, MD, who had done Mohs surgery on a BCC on my arm, to look at it. My little spot didn’t look anything like the ugly lesions I’d seen on websites, but it didn’t go away and I was worried. I pointed out the spot to my dermatologist, and she thought it was nothing to worry about. A few times I felt a little scab come off. Or I thought it could be a burn from my straightening iron. I didn’t think much of it at first, since I have sensitive skin, and hair products often make my scalp itch. It was on my scalp, just above the hairline. Then I noticed a spot that seemed different from the others.
DENT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FOREHEAD SKIN
I often checked my own skin and knew the signs to look for. This Spot Seemed Differentīy 2012 I had had six BCCs. I learned that I was also at risk for more, and other kinds, of skin cancer. That means you could end up with a chunk of your face missing and a big ol’ scar. But they can be “disfiguring,” as the dermatologists say. I learned that while some can be aggressive and recur, they very rarely metastasize or spread to other areas of the body. When I moved to New York and became a health writer and editor for magazines, I educated myself about skin cancer and became a bit of an expert on BCC. This technique has the highest cure rate and lowest recurrence rate of any skin cancer treatment, while preserving the maximum amount of normal tissue and allowing the smallest scar possible. Then the Mohs surgeon closes the wound (or, in some cases, a plastic surgeon may reconstruct and close the wound). The doctor repeats this process until no cancer cells are left. With Mohs surgery, if any cancer cells remain, the surgeon uses a map to identify where they are and precisely removes them while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible. This is different from standard excision, in which the physician closes the wound after removing the tumor, allows the patient to go home and sends the excised tissue to a lab for a pathologist to review. The surgeon removes the visible tumor and a small margin, then examines it under a microscope in an on-site lab while the patient waits. That’s when I learned about Mohs surgery, a technique done by a dermatologist who is specially trained. My forehead was the next target, and soon it became ground zero for a couple of aggressive BCCs that recurred after excisional surgery. The doctor took care of it with a simple excision and a Band-Aid. Sure enough, it was a basal cell carcinoma (also known as BCC), the most common type of skin cancer. He took a small sample of the tissue for a biopsy. My doctor said it was probably nothing because I was too young to have skin cancer. When I was in my mid-20s and living in Dallas, I noticed a scabby spot on my left thigh that never quite seemed to heal. But a lot of damage already had been done. I learned my lesson and started to protect myself from the sun. I finally started to understand the consequences of inheriting my father’s Scottish-Swedish DNA. My friends and I would “lay out” for hours, and while they would achieve that prom-ready patina, I once ended up in the doctor’s office with second-degree, blistered burns. I wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett - or my tall, blonde and tan older sister. When our skin started to peel, we thought that was cool.īy my teen years, my summers were less about playing in the water and more about the futile pursuit of a beach babe tan. At night, we slathered Noxzema on our burns while we listened to the Beatles. Whatever protection they offered washed right off in the water.
And the tanning lotions we had then were designed to enhance your “deep, dark tan,” not keep you from getting one. But it wasn’t cool to wear a T-shirt over your cute swimsuit - or a hat. We knew little about the dangers of the sun then.
While her skin took on a golden glow, mine would turn hot pink and freckly. My best friend Barbie and I would play in and out of the water all day long. My favorite childhood memories are of summer days at a crystal-clear lake in northern Minnesota. Turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma, a more dangerous type of skin cancer than I’d had before.
The little spot on my forehead didn’t look like much, but it didn’t feel right to me.
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