Since it was less than an inch from my eye and nose, they decided the mohs surgery was best. (If it would have been any other area, they would have treated it differently.)

The mohs surgery was basically an outpatient surgery. I was awake the whole time. They started early in the morning since it can take anywhere from 3-5+hrs. They had me in a chair that laid back flat. They then (the only part I really hate) had to poke me with a needle full of numbing medicines. They have to poke a lot, but after the first one or two sticks, the rest are mostly already numb – they are just enlarging the area.

The rest is how it is described to me since I couldn’t see and really would have passed out if I had (low tolerance to people cutting on me.)

They cut out the bad area with about a 1-2mm radius around it. He then immediately cauterized the area, put a bandage on it and sent me out to the waiting room. It took about an hr before he had the results and he hadn’t gotten it all.

So they went in a 2nd time and I guess cut a little deeper. (of course I also had to get a few more shots of the numbing medicine since it had partially worn off in that time.) He then cauterized the area, put a bandage on again and sent me to the waiting room. Again another hour wait. That time, he came back and diagnosed it as all gone. Then, since he wanted me to heal with very minimal scarring and no stretching of my eye, nose or puckering of the skin, he had to cut a much larger area so that when he stitched me back together everything went back just fine. He had a few internal stitches and around 15 external stitches that I had to come back a week later to get removed.

He gave me some sample scar creams and told me his favorite was the one online kelo-cote I believe it’s called. I assume it’s working as the scar is healing really fast.

Once I got home, I had some bruising on my face around the area that was worked on (to be expected.) It also took most of the day for the rest of the numbing medicine to wear off.

It itched a little the next day and that will drive you crazy (because you really can’t scratch it. Otherwise, I was given some Darvocet, but only took it the first two nights to make sure I slept through the night. I didn’t really need it for pain during the day. Acetaminaphine worked just fine.

Some pictures can be seen at:
Photos of the before and after
showing all the gory details.

If you can’t have the MOHs surgery, here’s the difference as it was explained to me. Instead of cutting a 1-2mm area around the cancer, they cut a 4-5mm area around the cancer to make sure they get it all the first time. They then immediately stitch you up and send you on your way. As long as it’s not on your face or near your eyes, that method should hopefully be fine for you. It being a plastic surgeon, he should really know how to get you stitched back up with very minimal scarring (If that is something that concerns you.) (I’m not a Doctor, though, so that’s just from what I’ve researched myself before I had my procedure done.)
If it is a sensitive area around the eye or face, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Hopefully that answers your questions. If not, drop me another email and I’ll answer what I can.