Well here we are again. Another few moles removed, another bad biopsy and additional excision to clear the area. More serious. More invasive. More stitches. More pain. More taking it easy and trying not to move. More healing. More prevention.

I shared about my skin’s journey with the sun last Spring. I talked about growing up when everyone wanted to be tan. I talked about my family’s history with skin cancer. And I talked about my experience having countless moles removed over the years – more than thirty, truly more than I can remember.

I also shared about my first experience with a bad biopsy, one that required additional excision. For those that aren’t familiar: after you have a mole removed it’s sent to a lab for biopsy. It may be fine or it may reveal some abnormal cells.

If there are enough abnormal cells, and is thought to be ‘pre-cancerous’, they’ll have you go back to your doctor to have more of the area removed, an ‘excision’ if you will.

As those who’ve had it done can attest, having anything removed is never a fun thing, let alone additional removed.

There are several variables that can affect your experience, including, but not limited to:

• location of the mole
• size
• biopsy results: severity of the abnormal cells
• method of excision

My most recent one was in the middle of my upper back, a tough spot as far as trying to avoid moving that skin or bumping.

My biopsy also came back with lots of abnormal cells, a hair away from cancer. So, my doctor wanted to go back and remove a lot more from the area. This resulted in a pretty invasive little surgery and several inches worth of stitches.

Thankfully my nurse numbed the skin extremely well and the doctor did a great job, so much so that I truly did not feel the procedure and was shocked by the amount of stitches and what I saw when initial dressing was removed.

My stitches are out now and the skin can breathe and continue healing. However, several days after having them removed my back is still a little sore and the skin is still a little mad. It is getting much better though!

The inflammation and redness is going down. The breakout on the surrounding skin that was irritated from constant band-aids is slowly clearing up as well.

I wore a sports bra for the first time since the stitches. I’ve started working out again and lifting my toddler. I’ve leaned back in a chair. I’ve stretched, reached and moved without (total) fear of stretching the skin further or popping stitches.

It’s taking time, but it’s healing. Right now I have a pretty big scar across my back that I fully intend to use as a visual aid this Summer if any of my kids dare try & argue with me about sunscreen (which one will inevitably still do because they’re kids.)

Scar treatments of course are optional; I didn’t really do anything special for any of my previous scars – all smaller and not as noticeable.

I’ve received some recommendations including silicone gels/patches, vitamin E and Bio Oil but I’m not able to reach this scar on my own so we’ll see how much I end up doing.

In the meantime, I’m told to keep the area out of the sun for a few months and keep it moisturized. My family have been an excellent post-op team, kids included.

I said it in my skin journey part 2 post last year and I’ll say it again: when we know better, we do better.

I don’t want to hide in the shade the rest of my life, but I’d really love not to get skin cancer and to avoid further digging and scraping of my skin.

So now that’s all I can do, all any of us can do. The damage that’s done is done.

We all just need to try our best to prevent further damage or potential skin cancer by avoiding damaging rays from the sun, covering up, wearing sunscreen, moisturizing, and checking our skin regularly.