Skin Cancer Follow-up

Sheila and I ventured up to the University of Vermont Medical Center earlier in the past week to deal with some spots and growths on my skin.  This appointment had been delayed many months because we were more focused on more severe health problems.

The primary concern with my skin was a growth on my right temple (photo at right).  This had been growing steadily for about a year and then it started growing more quickly throughout this past summer.  It had quickly grown to a concerning size when it comes to cancer so I was definitely looking forward to having this growth taken care of one way or another.  

I have a history of skin cancer including a fairly large basal cell carcinoma.  I also have had all sorts of stuff removed from the surface of my skin over the years.  The one basal cell carcinoma I had removed in surgery was a large growth that went deeply into the flesh so that was actually a "surgery" requiring about 27 stitches to close-up the area after removing the cancer.

For this latest visit, I had a new doctor and the visit went quite well.  Actually, the appointment went so well and the doctor was so thorough and nice that Sheila said she wants to see my new doctor too.  During our visit with the doctor, she checked my entire body and then we discussed a few spots here and there.  

As luck would have it, that growth pictured above had disappeared over the course of the past month!  It had been growing for over a year and then disappeared within a few weeks!  I still had other problem areas for the doctor to check but this growth on my temple was the primary reason for this particular visit.  I don't know why this growth disappeared.  The only thing that changed with me is that I started on a steroid for my breathing issues a little over a month ago.  The doctor doesn't think that this growth disappeared due to the steroid though.  She also said that I should not be surprised if it reappears before long.  

Most of the remaining growths are pre-squamous cell crusty things.  I have some red spots and brown spots as well as rubbery clear growths.  All are due to sun damage over the decades.  At the moment, however, there is no immediate concern that requires hospital treatment.  That being said, we did discuss treatment options if I did happen to want to get rid of these growths.  

My sun damage is very diffuse and spread all across my face so there is no way to effectively treat one or two "spots" (kind of the same situation as with my extensive spinal injuries...  too many problems to make any sort of a difference by treating one or two of the worst problems).  The entire face would need to be treated at this point so we briefly discussed a type of chemo for this.  When the doctor asked me if I wanted to start on this treatment, I asked her what she recommends.  Fortunately, she advised that there is nothing pressing on my skin at the moment so she feels there isn't any immediate need for treatment.   

She did recommend, however, that I call for another appointment if anything with my skin changes.  

In the meantime, I decided to go back to a 90 day treatment recommended by the NIH.  I had already done this treatment twice and I had some success at minimizing the worst of the problems while the more mild problems completely disappeared.  We'll see how that goes...