I’m having my nose shortened today

This is what it looks like today. I had the protective sponge removed yesterday.
The worst part was the big reveal. I really didn’t know what to expect but at least I still have a nose. The medics were very happy with it.
I absolutely know that it is going to improve enormously, it’s still got a lot of healing to do.
Can’t say I like it but could have been a lot worse. Now I just have to look after it and hope the graft takes.

Thank you PamelaJI. Your photos are very helpful.

The mole on my nose is brown and not a prominent bump but as flat as the surrounding skin.

I am keeping an eye on it for any changes in shape, colour or texture and whether it starts to itch or bleed.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202305/medium-885437-img-4758.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202305/medium-107156-img-3903.jpeg

Ramblingrose22

Can I ask the OP what she noticed a d what the skin cancer looked like as I developed a small brown mole on the tip of my nose a few years ago bit it has never grown, changed colour, itched or bled so I've never asked the GP about it.

My advice to anyone who notices some new growth on their skin is to monitor it carefully. If I got a new mole I would be concerned, however as our skin ages we inevitably get new lumps and bumps. Fortunately these are generally nothing to worry about but can give us cause for concern.
My BCCs have started in the same way - a small white lump that bleeds, scabs over and then bleeds again. As has already been mentioned by others they don’t all behave in the same way.
Luckily, unlike Whiffs DH who had a melanoma and a very sad outcome (💐), a BCC will spread but is not a life sentence.
I’ve included a couple of photos.

I thought i had an overactive white spot which naughty me kept squeezing and it was my then 10yr old daughter telling me to go to GP as she was just learning about white and red blood cells..And you shouldn't squeeze spots....i only went to the GP to stop my daughter going on and on about the white spot..GP sent me to dermatologist within days and because it was just under my right eye near to nose said he would do biopsy and said he just needed to freeze the area...such a long needle thought he was going thru my face..well after couple of mins, he said he'd removed it all as didn't want a rogue cell left in this area ..had black eye for couple of days and diagnosed a basel cell carcinoma..thank my baby for being stubborn and relentless with me about seeing the GP... Blessings to All

One of my basal cell carcinomas on my nose was as small as a pinprick. After washing my face I looked in the mirror and could see a tiny little bit of clear fluid which i thought was water. I wiped it away and thought no more. Then every morning I could see it again. So it isn’t always a mole or scab you are looking for.

My husband had grade 4 malignant melanoma. He had a full beard and thick black hair. It was in his hair in line with his right eye just above the front of he's ear. It appeared over night. Even though he was co owner of a steel fabrication company he hated being in the office so went to sites at least twice a week. He came home October 2000 and said I have caught my face . So I looked got the medical book out and picture looked exactly like a malignant melanoma. He saw our GP the next day he thought it was a bleeding mole. I found out which of our GPs specialist in skin conditions. Saw him the next day within days saw consultant dermatologist he said it looked like cancer but wouldn't touch it as it was to close to his eye and needed a plastic surgeon. We saw the skin McMillan nurse at the hospital who talked us through everything. Got to see consultant plastic surgeon week later . He said it was a benign cancer I said no it wasn't. Time has matched on by then . And he had his biopsy 27th December 2000. He had to walk to the hospital in deep snow.

Mid January 2001 the consultant apologised to me it was a grade 4 malignant melanoma . My husband was told he wouldn't live 5 years. He had large oval the size of the cancer and tissue removed to the depth and skin take from his left side of his neck for the graft. Luckily my husband had good muscle definition so his eye didn't droop. As it was one of the things that could have happened. That consultant left before the operation and my husband's new one was brilliant.

He wore glasses and because of the dressing removed the right arm before the op. While on the ward a medical student asked why he had removed the arm he explained why. She wrote it down as a tip to give to other patients who wore glasses. I like to think she did pass it on.

Only me and our 2 children knew he wouldn't live as he never wanted to be treated as dead man walking . So we lived with the swords of Damocles hanging over us. Until October 2003 when it dropped. His consultant had us in during lunch time so only him and nurse where there. He had 6 tumours. 3 in his right lung, 1 in his chest and 2 in his brain by the optical nerve. His consultant had arranged to see the oncologist 2 hours later. The oncologist thought the cancer had been set down in childhood. My husband had spend hours on the beach as a child without any sun tan oil as it was in those days . No suntan cream like today . He was born in 1957 me 1958. He was given 4 months to 2 years. Palative chemo every 3 weeks and radiotherapy to start in February 2004.

We then had to tell everyone and what he feared most happened people treated him differently. Before chemo I said you had better have a hair cut . Being him he said I am not wasting £7 when I will lose my hair. The only 2 side effects my husband had from chemo where the 2 things he didn't want as he loved food and sex. He lost his sense of taste and became impotent.

He wanted to reach his 47th birthday and I promised we would get him there. He died 4 days later February 2004 at home with me and our children aged 20 and 16. I was 45.

But please don't read this as doom and gloom this is what happened to us. There is a skin cancer thread lower down and much to my joy and man wrote he had grade 4 malignant melanoma but there is now treatment that can increase a person's life span it's not the automatic death sentence it was for my husband.

I haven't written this to frightened people but to show how far treatment has come for skin cancer . If it happened to my husband today he would have lived longer.

Always get any mark on your body checked out and wear high factor suntan cream and a hat in the sun . And remember winter sun is still damaging.

I don't sunbathe and always wear a sunhat in bright sunshine. Keep covered up!
My DGC, who a redheads with freckles, wear hats and the one in NZ has to wear a sunhat at school.

Hope that all is healing well.

Ramblingrose mine started off as a small mark, as did my mother’s and sister’s. I mentioned it to the GP simply because I was asking about some other skin marks that never went completely away. The others were fine, that one wasn’t but fortunately it was caught early and has now been treated. I carry on keeping a wary eye on anything that looks at all suspicious.
My mother and sister both had basil cell carcinomas. Mum’s was a small mark that had been on the front of her leg since her (sunbathing) twenties. My sister never sunbathed.
Actually neither do I, but can still seen a difference in the facial skin on my forehead that is usually covered up by my fringe and also the side of my face next to the car window.

Im trying to use a high strength sun screen all the time but am finding that I’m increasingly allergic to them.
Any suggestions from others would be very welcome.

Ramblingrose make an appointment as soon as possible.

A speedy recovery to you, PamelaJ, I’m sure all will turn out very well.

A very good reminder too about wearing sunblock. I don’t think it’s a stretch for our age group to understand what might happen years down the road when you have not put on protection. Harder to convince younger generation just how important it is!

Our atmosphere is getting thinner and thinner, thus more dangerous.
Well Wish to You!
USA Gundy

Although we feel healthier with a nice tan, they say tanned skin is not healthy skin. When I think back to my childhood in the 1950’s when my sister and I would peel ribbons of skin off each others backs!

Can I ask the OP what she noticed a d what the skin cancer looked like as I developed a small brown mole on the tip of my nose a few years ago bit it has never grown, changed colour, itched or bled so I've never asked the GP about it.

I was amongst a group of women in a breast cancer clinic all waiting for the surgeon to begin the operations for the day. Over in the corner another group of women sat waiting to be examined to see whether or not they had breast cancer. One of them was understandably nervous but spoke a bit too loudly. She said something along the lines of "I really don't want to be just another statistic". I felt like waving and saying "Cooee, us statistics over here can hear you, do you realize?"

I didn't say it, but often wonder what her reaction would have been if I had.

I had severe sunburn every summer of my childhood, even flaps of skin coming of. Suncreams seemed to burn into my skin. I stopped using them at age 15 or so and was fine from then on. Doctor said I was allergic to the then existing creames. Never got sunburned again. I'm 65 now, of course stopped sunbathing ages ago. I'm still afraid skincancer might appear, so check myself on a regular base. Now that I have grandchildren you can always spot me because I'm the one with the family-size bottle of sunscrean SPF50 in my handbag

It must be healing, it’s so itchy. I didn’t realise what a lot of things one can’t do when looking down is forbidden. I’ve done my end of year accounts by balancing my keyboard on 2 box files.
I’ve also got to sleep almost sitting up but seem to have mastered that with loads of pillows and a neck support.
It’s amazing how many people have had this problem but if you get it early enough it’s easy to get rid of it. I was just unlucky with my ‘experts’ so like Topsy it just kept growing.

ExDancer eye injections! Ugh! I've had some and am now doing everything I can think of to avoid having any more - reiki, reflexology, herbs...

I had one of those MOH's four years ago and after healing I was left with a hardly visible white scar.

My nose now wears Factor 50 permanently including inside the house - just in case!

Hope you heal quickly PamelaJl

Wishing you all the very best PamelaJ and thank you for the timely reminder about sunscreen, very important.

All the very best. I would never have heard of Mohs surgery if a dear friend hadn't had it ten years ago. It was very successful and there have been no repeats of those devious little cells.

It was a wake up call for me and all of her friends. The mark on her nose had been tiny. If it hadn't bled a lot she might have ignored it.

All the best again.

All the best Pamela 🍀

Best of luck and keep it up with the jokes Pamela! It all helps pass the time, and I'm sure it assists recovery!

I have just returned from a week in Tenerife and was absolutely horrified by the number of people lying in the sun for hour after hour. I assume they had sun tan lotion on but the colour of some of the people at the end of the day looked really worrying. One chap was so red it was painful to look at - I assume he hadn't re-applied lotion after swimming or maybe not used any at all. I 'sheltered' under a brolly for 90% of the time, swimming when it got really hot then in the sun for no more than 20 minutes with factor 50 on and yet people back in the UK are commenting on how well I look (there is no doubt that a tan does look healthy).

I have never sunbathed as find it difficult to relax when I get hot and itchy! I do wear SPF 50 when forced to be in the sun and SPF 20 normally. I am lucky enough not to have problems atm, but it can always happen, due to less than perfect protection years ago when we didn’t really know the risks. This happened to my cousin who has always been sun shy, like me. She had a cancer on her nose that had to be removed and involved subsequent treatment. It is always best to keep an eye on things no matter how careful you are. I know I do now!

I was on a ward for women having breast cancer surgery and we got on like a house on fire. Talking and laughing till all hours. The comradeship was such that I really missed them when I came home.
I suppose men in the army develop the same sort of bond especially in hard times, a touch of gallows humour thrown in too.

Grammaretto thank you . A friend in Australia has had MOHS and I examined her nose in great detail when I was over there in February. I felt that if mine looks like hers when it heals I will be relieved.
The surgeon couldn’t do a flap, she took skin from my neck and I have a black sponge stitched to my nose at the moment.
It looks wonderful🤦🏼‍♀️ the finished result has to be an improvement.