This is partly just a visual record of my recovery after Mohs surgery to remove a BCC on the side of my nose. I found it really helpful to read a similar blog by Indie15 on this site, though her surgery was on the bridge of her nose.
After not being terribly well-prepared for the surgery beforehand (they don't know what they're going to do until the day), it's been a bit of a steep learning curve.
The worst point came a week after the surgery, when I revisited the hospital, I thought, to have the dressing removed. It was a busy dressing clinic, and the nurse who saw me was not terribly helpful. She told me that the purple mark in the middle of the graft could indicate it might fail (partially, or fully, I couldn't figure it out and I didn't get the chance to ask questions). I got a brief look at the graft, and it was redressed. I visited again a week later, and the dressing was removed. The nurse was much more helpful and supportive, and I felt reassured that the graft was okay. This was how it looked the day after the dressing was removed (2 weeks post surgery):
One week later, the graft had changed quite a bit, and there was quite a bit of scabbing around it, which hadn't come away with cleansing with the aqueous cleanser the second nurse had given me. It looked like this:
(The small circle next to the graft is the site of a punch biopsy, taken during the reconstruction, of another red area the surgeon was concerned about).
I found stitches in the graft area. As these were coloured, I thought they might have been left from where the bolster was stitched in place immediately after the operation. The nurse at my GP surgery was afraid to touch them, so I returned to the hospital again. The nursing staff were lovely. They cleaned up the area, removing the scabbing. I don't know if this was a good idea (all the guidelines suggest leaving scabs in place until they come away).But it did mean that the graft looked better, and I could also start massaging to reduce scarring. After the 'descabbing' the graft looked like this:
I started massaging twice a day with Boots Scar Reducing Serum. I also use Scaraway dressing (cut down to size), day and night, taped in place with flesh-coloured steritape. The graft is changing slowly, not always for the better it seems. Sometimes it looks redder, and the raised appearance is still there This is it after 5 weeks:
I have the histology follow-up on January 17, and am hoping I can find out more about how the graft might develop/heal over the next few months.
