I have aging skin. It has sags, wrinkles, spots and blemishes. I developed a large area on my back that was scaly and itchy. I went to the dermatologist. I started to pull up by shirt to show him the area but he stopped me. "I want to look at that place on the side of your head", he said. Oh, I had been having trouble with the place for a year. Every time I shave, I try to remember that place and not let the razor cut me there.
He looked and said he needed to take a sample. He didn't hurt me much taking it, not like his can of nitrogen, which he uses to freeze spots that need it. That nitrogen does not feel cold. It hurts. The pain is intense but over a small area and it only lasts about 20 minutes. This time, he just said he needed to take a sample and send it off to a lab. He did look at my back and he said he wanted a sample from there, too, for the lab.
After a week, I got a call. The area on my temple is cancerous and needs to be exorcised. I had squamous cell cancer, which the internet told me was the 2nd most common skin cancer. I got an appointment to have both spots removed. I had them worked on yesterday. There was a little pain involved but the most trying aspect of the treatment was the bandaging. It seemed to take a week while two women bandaged and pressed and bandaged and prepped some more. Eventually, they said they were finished. I can remove the bandages after two days and go in next week to have the stitches removed. The bandages on my back are the size of two iPhones in a stack.
