Butterfly Wings

Yesterday, DH and I went for our annual skin checks.

He, of course, was declared worry-free, which is good, of course.

I have to go back in a couple of weeks. Most of my body, although fat, and partially sunburned from my bike ride on Saturday, is problem-free as far as the reason for the appointment. Fortunately, I received no lectures on either the sunburn or the fat. The thing on my forehead, however, which has been bothering me for ages, and which a year ago was frozen off by my GP (thinking it was just a harmless sunspot), is now considered to be a basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (this doctor is not so impressed with my GP). However, since I’ve bumped the thing so often lately, and it is inflamed and scabby, it’s difficult to be sure that it is what he thinks it is. So I have to try to let it heal (ironically, it’s in a great place for hats to irritate), then go back for another look, partly to confirm that it’s a BCC, and partly to determine which type (some are worse than others, but he thinks mine is one of the “least bad” - gee, where have I heard that before?)

If it turns out that it is a BCC, or at least that the doctor is more sure of that next time I see him, I have two options.

The first, simplest option is surgery. I’ve had a BCC removed before. It was on the side of my face, right on the line where the arm of my glasses sits. It was smaller, and healed well. This new one is larger, and is above one eye. Traditionally, the doctor would cut a margin around the actual BCC, then straight cuts to each side, in order to close the skin in a straight crease line and minimise the obvious scar. But this is my forehead. And the cut will be big. He described the result as a brow lift. On one side. Firstly, I don’t need a brow lift. My forehead is about the only part of my body that doesn’t have a lot of excess skin. Secondly, I don’t really want to walk around permanently with one raised eyebrow. He did show me a couple more cut techniques he could use, which would bring the skin together vertically, causing a vertical scar that didn’t naturally fall in a crease line. This should avoid the raised eyebrow effect, but leave a more out-of-place scar. I believe I can better tolerate a vertical scar than a permanent derisive expression. And, as long as he takes a decent margin, it has a success rate of very close to 100%.

The second option is Photodynamic therapy (PDT). After he takes an initial scraping of the thing to send away for testing to confirm the cell type, I can fork over $250 (a lot more than surgery) for a series of treatments. These treatments consist of applying a chemical cream which is then activated (made toxic) by a light treatment in his clinic. This treatment brags a success rate of 80%. Yes, that’s a failure rate of 20%. One in five people will have to return for the surgery anyway.

I’m heavily leaning towards the cheaper, vertical scar.

And maybe I can put some of the financial saving towards a new hairstyle. I think it’s overdue.