My brother was watching TV one day and happened upon a program where they were describing different types of skin cancer and one looked like a blue ink pen dot. He thought that looks like the spot on the bottom of my big toe. He had noticed this before and tried to wash it off but it stayed. He made an appointment and found out it was a melanoma! It was just a speck of a thing but they ended up having to go back a second time to get a clear margin. It wasn't so much the diameter as the depth they had to go. He was on crutches for several months as it took forever for it to heal. He is now over 5 years out and no other problems. Literally the TV show saved his life as he would never have gone to the doctor. Turns out it is not as unusual as you might think. Sometimes they are found between the toes or even under the nail.

Trail, I wear glasses, too, so I got creative and when I was able to reduce the size of the bandage before the stitches were removed I cut up 2 clear - not sheer- bandaids which allowed me to put my glasses on without pain and also kept the sun off the wound. I had my MOHs done in late July and kept the bandage on until early september. Even after I removed the bandaids the area was somewhat tender but tolerable. My doctor offered laser to soften the scar and reduce its appearance, so I had that done in late September. I needed a bandaid for about a day or 2 after that. Helene

I have had skin cancer in three places on my face. One Squamous Cell on my forehead, and two Basal Cell -- one on the side of my nose, and the other near the inside corner of my right eye. That one was so close to the tear duct that my dermatologist (who is consistently named one of the two Top Docs in dermatology) sent me to a Mohs specialist. If you know where to look, and look closely, you can see an itty bitty scar on my forehead and an itty bitty scar on the side of my nose. But you cannot tell at all where the Mohs surgery was done near my eye. A very basic explanation of the difference between "regular" surgery and Mohs surgery is that with the regular surgery, the doctor will remove a chunk of skin surrounding the area where the mole (or "bump") was removed. Then the tissue will be sent to a lab for analysis. If an edge of that chunk has any cancerous cells, you have to go back again to have another chunk removed. And, they won't know exactly where on the original chunk the cancer cells were, so an even larger area will be excised to try to make sure they got it all. With Mohs surgery, a very thin section of skin is removed. That section is then cut into quarters, and each quarter is given a different color. Those quarters are examined, and if any of them have cancerous cells, the doctor will remove another thin layer, but only from the section(s) that still are affected. They know exactly which areas to go back to because of how the sections are coded. Yes, it can take all day, but that's because once a sample is excised, you go back out to the waiting room while the tissue is prepared and examined. The "waiting part" takes about an hour or so. If they need to go back for more, you are taken back to the procedure room again, and then back out to the waiting room. As soon as you get an "all clear," you can leave. And the waiting room where I had my Mohs surgery had extremely comfortable recliners to rest (nap) in. And this was years before I had a Kindle, so I brought some knitting with me. I, too, go for a fully body skin check each year. Thankfully, nothing further has been found.

Both DH and I have had MOHS surgeries in the past few years, we are in our 60's. It is usually recommended for the face. It's great if you have a plastic surgeon lined up in case it's larger than anticipated. Mine was a tiny spot above upper lip, basal cell. I wish I had gone with the fluoricel cream(sp) as I ended up with a huge hole requiring skin grafting, stiches etc. Later on sympathizing with several other patients, who underwent the same procedure, we all felt this particular civilian, dermatology group pressured us to undergo the MOHS, because we had good insurance, and they were more concerned with profits. (I had mentioned to the dermatologist, that my husband had been prescribed cream by the military MD, for the basal cell, cancers on his face, the doctor's response was that the military used the cheapest methods available, and that if I didn't get the MOHS asap the cancer would continue growing at a rapid pace). The military doctors discovered a squamous cell on DH's earlobe about a year later. He was in and out of the hospital for a MOHS within a couple of hours. Granted the ear lobe is different than upper lip but his MOHS barely shows any scar unlike mine. As for the fluoricel cream, DH has been prescribed that many times over the years for his face and body. Yes it's uncomfortable, and for a couple of weeks unsightly but it does the same thing as MOHS without cutting chunks of flesh out and having to reconstruct! I would be very cautious about the dermatologist, the dermatology practice, and whether the skin cancer is basal or squamous cell, also the size/location and if you decide to go ahead with MOHS, make sure the reconstruction surgery is performed by a board certified, facial plastic surgeon who has a lot of experience and comes highly recommended!