re: Anyone ever had cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma? What should I expect?

For a year I had what I thought was a reoccurring ingrown whisker om my neck about an 1" under my ear. Finally had it checked out and the Dr cut out a 2.5cm diameter piece of skin out almost down to the muscle to remove the SCC. I had fluid build up that needed to be drained for 3 months at the incision. The Dr said I would have been dead in a year if I had continued to ignore it.

Straw hats when I'm fishing or mowing now as well as long sleeve t-shirts.

Good luck OP!

LINK

Read this.

There is a new procedure that uses focused radiation. Non invasive, no stitches, etc... Being used on a lot of patients that have various types of skin cancer on their nose. Skin on the nose is hard to match so grafts can really stand out.

The only reason I know about this is because I am about to start the 1st of 5 treatments. They are doing 2 spots on my nose. Treatment will take place weekly and last 5-7 minutes. They will do one spot, re-position, and then do the 2nd spot. No surgery, no stitches, no long recovery times with a bandage on your nose/face.

Effects of treatment are supposed to me like a mild sunburn and will disappear quickly. Cost is close to that of normal surgery by a dermatologist. If the area is in a difficult place and your dermatologist recommends a plastic surgeon for the stitching then it is a wash.

Might want to ask about this treatment as an option. Some insurances cover it and some don't yet. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield and they don't but we will hit our family out of pocket max of $2500. Traditional cut and wait, cut and wait, etc... would still have cost me $1850 out of pocket and I would have to deal with stitches, bandaids, etc... Too busy and too many meetings to schedule around that.

Good luck.

Ive had about a dozen.

Learn to love the scars.

UPDATE

I had the cancer cut out today. The doctor got most of it doing Mohs surgery but had to go in a second time to get some that he missed. Fifteen stitches. I'm sore but not really in pain.

They took pictures during the process and let me see them. There is a pretty nice gash below my eye and a plastic surgeon could be in my future. On the other hand the gash does look pretty badass and I might want to just keep the scar. If so then I am going to tell people that I got it in a cutlass duel while looting a freighter off the Spanish Main.