Welcome To My Not So Sunny Experience

Where to begin? Lets start with a little bit about me (just in case someone decides to read about my experience that doesn't know me). I am 22 years old and this past May I graduated from Texas State University with a degree in Elementary Education.

I have a wonderful family, an awesome boyfriend, amazing friends and a super cute puppy!

Oh and one other thing, I have Basal Cell Skin Cancer. This being the reason I am here, writing about my experience. Through this blog I will post stories, pictures and explanations of everything I experience during this journey of having skin cancer at 22 years old. At first I had decided to keep this whole "skin cancer" thing to my family only (honestly I didn't even want to tell my friends) but I have decided that it was pretty selfish of me. I realized this after all of the hours of googling and searching for a story or pictures of a young person with skin cancer and only finding pictures and stories of people over the age of 60. I found tons of news articles saying that skin cancer is on the rise for young individuals but I could never actually find anything about their surgery, what their scar looked like, nothing. So I figured that there will be another youngster in the future searching and searching for someone to relate to and hopefully they will find this blog and feel a little more at ease. Here it is, my story:

Two weeks ago I decided to visit my dermatologist about this flaky bump on my nose that wouldn't go away. It had been there for quite some time and I thought it was just a really annoying pimple. I figured my dermatologist would give me some cream and everything would be okay. Here are some pictures that I found where you can kind of see it. It is on my left nostril. I'm not one to go out in public without makeup, much less take a picture, so it was hard to find pictures where you could actually see it. These will have to do.

So 5 minutes into the doctors visit, I was completely caught off guard. My dermatologist explained that he thought I might have Basal Cell Carcinoma and that he needed to do a skin biopsy. WHAT!?? That NEVER ONCE had crossed my mind. Skin Cancer at 22 years old? At this point I began to feel a little nervous. The nurse gave me 6 shots in my nose to numb the area and after I could no longer feel my nose, my dermatologist scrapped the top layer of the area off. They explained that they would send the skin sample off and I would know the results in 5-7 days. Here is a picture of my nose 2 days after the skin biopsy. ( I cringe posting these horrible pictures of myself for the world to see...)

The next week I got the phone call. The nurse explained that the results came back positive for Basal Cell Skin Cancer. Basal Cell is the world's most common cancer, with more than one million people diagnosed every year in the US alone. Almost all basal cell carcinomas occur on parts of the body excessively exposed to the sun. Being that this type of skin cancer rarely spreads, the nurse explained that I was "lucky" because I had the 'best' kind of skin cancer. (I bet you can guess how "lucky" I felt at that moment.) The nurse referred me to a MOHS surgeon (MOHS surgery is a micrographic surgery that is the most effective and state-of-the-art procedure for skin cancer today). In two days I found myself sitting in Dr. Berlin's room. Lets just say that things didn't go over so well with Dr.Berlin and myself. He briefly examined my nose and had me read a 5 page packet about MOHS surgery. After I had educated myself about the surgery the doctor explained to me that he has 90 year old patience and then ME (that made me feel GREAT about myself!!) Finding out you have skin cancer and then being yelled at because you have have it at such a young age was not the best experience I have ever had. He believed my nose would need extensive reconstructive surgery that he would not be able to perform. He told me that I would need to see a plastic surgeon the day after he got the cancer out. After that I decided that it would be best that I see another doctor.

Two days ago I met Dr. Thornwell Parker. One of the nurses that works with my mom referred us to him. The great thing about Dr.Parker is that he is a MOHS surgeon and a plastic surgeon all in one! Everything about this visit was completely different than my original visit with Dr.Berlin (or as my mom and dad refer to him as Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde) Dr.Parker actually explained the surgery ( I didn't have to read a packet about it), he examined the rest of my body to make sure he didn't see additional spots (the other doctor did not do this) and best of all he did not bash me for having skin cancer at 22 years old. He explained that he would do whatever it takes to make me look normal after its all over and done with and that everything will be okay! : ) Having a doctor with confidence made everything seem 100% better.

I leave for Hawaii on Sunday so I had to put the surgery off until after vacation. Dr. Parker will do the surgery on Tuesday, July 6th at 7:45 a.m. and then he will do the reconstructive surgery the following day at 2:10 p.m. During the surgery I will not be put "under" (they told me to bring something to keep myself busy because it might take awhile) so I will update the blog with pictures and information throughout the surgery.

Here is a picture of my nose today, two weeks after the skin biopsy. It really doesn't matter what it looks like since it will be cut off in two weeks but I sure am glad makeup can cover up the scab for Hawaii!

- Staci