My Mole Removal - Chicago, IL

So I have dealt with miles my entire life. I have had a dozen or so removed and biopsied over the course of my 20s. A couple on my face I had removed five years ago, and it really made a difference with my self-esteem. I was able to pull my hair back and not have to pose a certain way in photos to hide my larger, red-brown moles. But in the last couple years, I have had a couple more pop up. After debating for months, I finally decided to get one removed any more obvious place on my cheek. I had a hard time when researching and finding really good before and after photos, so I'd like to share my procedure with you.

I noticed that my incision seemed swollen the last couple days and attributed it to my skin starting to reject the stitches. I also didn't like that with I didn't get to visualize the wound every day to monitor it because of the tape. IT seemed really dry, and I've always been educated that wounds heal better with aquaphor. Got sutures out today and it definitely does not look like my previous excisions, which always healed nicely. It's quite puckered, and the surgeon advised me to place tape over the incision for the next two weeks, followed by 2 weeks of silicone gel until our follow-up. He said that under his microscope, the incision looks like it will still turn out well with some extra TLC. This definitely makes me nervous that what initially was supposed to be a tiny white scar may end up being worse than the mole.

Still has not magically turned into a beautiful thin scar :( considerable puckering. I'm wondering if the incision was not made long enough to accommodate the size of the mole. There is a tender hard bump under the inferior part of the scar (maybe the internal stitch didn't dissolve). I'm doing the silicone scar sheets 24 hours/day to hopefully flatten it more. I can say I'm pretty disappointed so far, especially since I haven't had any issues with my previous dozen excisions.