Post BCC skin graft surgery on nose

Hi and welcome to the online community

I'm sorry to see that no one who has had a BCC removed has been able to reply to you. My skin cancer was not a BCC and I'm not medically trained so I don't have the experience you're looking for. However, if you're concerned that your wound could be infected, as you said it's inflamed, then it would be best to get it looked at as soon as possible. 

As you won't be able to see your GP until Tuesday it might be an idea to give NHS 111 a call and they'll tell you whether you need to see someone before then.

x

Hi,...My nose graft was a strip of skin taken from the side of my nose.  It was still attached and pulled over to the wound and stitched.  My graft was very red and puffy and like yours bled from time to time.  In fact at first I thought that I had black stitches because of the bleeding and the area looked very crusty. My nose was very red and everything was swollen.  

If you are still concerned call your doctor.

Hi Lart, 

Have you been able to speak with someone about your nose? How is it looking now? I hope you're doing okay. 

Hi

Everything is settling down now thank you. I just had NO idea what to expect. I found some blogs on here that initially reassured me that my graft was looking "normal". 

It's now beginning to blend in and losing the scabbiness. I've seen the nurse for a check up and shes assured me it's all going well. 

That's great Lart. It does look so awful to start, doesn't it. :-) I had my graft (28mm, tip of nose) on 13 April. I had a bandage. When they took the stitches out it looked like a black little pancake on my nose, with the imprint of the bolster dressing on it! Then it went pinkish/red/bloody, then parts died and went black. Eventually they cut off the dead tissue and I had some blood based scabs, which I'm now putting vaseline on so they don't get crusty. The skin is healing, but the graft looks weird - pasty looking and it's raised above the rest. They say they can sand it down later. I was told to leave the bandage off now and massage the scars. I go through good days and not so good. Today was a bummer. Hopefully better tomorrow! :-) I've gone to see friends in Brighton so that helps. Sending much love. Hope your healing continues to go well for you.  Ilona xx

28 mm is a fair size Ilona! Mine was about 15mm I’m guessing to start and it was not covered. So I saw it go from white and fairly flat to scrunching up and turning purplish. Not sure which is worse to see it change or have it exposed to you when it’s at a visually horrific stage!

Apart from not knowing what to expect in seeing it I didn’t feel I had enough advise on what to do....or not do... with it. I was just given Chloramphenicol anti bacterial cream to put on 4 times a day. By the time I saw the nurse I had been washing it with some soap and water but she said just to leave it alone for the edges to knit and keep it moist with Vaseline. 

I know we can’t post photos on posts but I may create a photo blog so others may benefit.

Thank you for sending love and healing. I hope you continue to heal well too. X

I'm sorry you were left to work out what to do by yourself initially, Lart. That's a lonely place to be. I'm also at the stage of massaging 2x daily with Vaseline now.

I haven't been able to work out how to post photos. I think that's a great idea. I would have found it helpful, and still would now to see what to realistically expect. The before and after photos on line I found before were maybe of the absolute success stories. 

Thanks for your good wishes. Same back again of course. It's been nice 'talking' to you. :-)