Skin Cancer

Well.. here I am! Just sitting at home with a huge bandage on my forehead. Just got home from surgery at the dermatologist's office. Here's the story...
A couple of weeks ago, after a lot of urging from family, I went in to have a little spot checked on my forehead. It was red, with little raised bumps and looked like a mix between acne and a scar. I first noticed it in high school, and since my hair covered it, and never hurt, I ignored it.
Hard to see, right? After a biopsy, the results came back as Basal Cell Carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancer. It is usually found in older patients; many of them are sea sailors from the WWII! People who have had a lot of sun. Since I'm so young, the doctor contributes my cancer to mostly genetics, but of course, also to sun exposure. I'm also a perfect candidate because I have red hair and such fair skin.Today, the doctor did a procedure known as MOHS Surgery to remove the cancer. They take off a piece of the cancer, then look at it under a microscope to see if they've removed it all. If not, they take more, and then the patient leaves cancer-free! Easy enough, right? 

Not really! Since the forehead skin is so tight, they had to do a facelift-like procedure to attempt to keep my eyebrows symmetrical! The doc pulled my skin tight and left me with a "quizzical" look. Jaren thought it was pretty funny! Luckily, my skin should pull back down, but if not, I'll have to get some botox in my OTHER eyebrow so i don't look so goofy... why would ANYone ever want a facelift!? (ask me in a few years and maybe I'll understand).

60 stitches later, I was finally sent home with some antibiotics and a few painkillers. But I'm good! and cancer-free. Thank goodness for a husband who likes blood and surgeries. He was such a trooper and probably liked watching the procedure a little TOO much.. The doctor was great and let Jaren stand right next to us. They were all laughing and telling hilarious jokes the whole time - I didn't get any of them and was just trying NOT to pass out. Thanks, babe :)

Here's some pictures before the dressings were put on. Bad lighting + stupid expression = picture of a dead person at the morgue. Woops! Jaren made me smile on some of them, but I wasn't happy.
It looks a lot worse than it is, I promise! haha. The bumps are from 15 cc's of local anesthetic, and will go away. I will probably get skin cancer again throughout my lifetime, but now I know what I'm looking for! I'm just happy it's gone and curable.