Had a recurrence of basal cell below my nose from 2006. Used imiquimod cream for 2 weeks before it reacted so violently that dermatologist said discontinue, you are probably fine. Not so. This year saw Dr. Renfro who determined it was either never gone, or had come back, so Mohs it was. Her office is BUSY. I would not expect a warm, fuzzy feeling from anyone in here as they are so busy. They work like a factory. People in, people out. I don't care about this; I wanted medical and surgical expertise and I believe I received it. I chose to have Dr. Paul Buhrer, Plastic Surgery Specialists, close the site as I was really was expecting a bigger wound. Luckily it was not. The worst part of all...the damnable numbing shots. Near the lips and nose?! OMG. It's over fast but feels like an hour, so just keep telling yourself you can get thru it and you won't feel a thing. I won't post the language that came out of my mouth, or the fact that I had to ring my shoes out I was sweating so bad from the intensity of the shots. First night, I felt considerable pain. Prickles and stabs. The Nortab took care of it. Tylenol does NOT help me much at all so this suggestion was met with, please give me a few tablets of something ELSE just in case. You may have better luck without the heavy stuff, but I was glad I had it. The 2nd day, and now today is the 3rd? No pain at all. A LOT of swelling as you can see in the 2nd photo. I get stitches out in 1 week and will post a new photo then. Updated on 11 Jul 2016: I stopped using the bacitracin two days ago, as the surgery site felt irritated. Have only been using plain Vaseline and the surgery site (maybe it's just normal healing and not related?) is less red. Still some swelling but really looking quite good and I'm pleased. Stitches out tomorrow! Updated on 10 Aug 2016: I'm really happy with the healing thus far. I'm using store-bought "scar" cream (cost about $30) from Walgreens and plain aloe vera gel (no alcohol) intermittently. I think the scar and redness will heal very slowly from this point on, since it healed so quickly.
