skin cancer

This coming Saturday I have to get another mohs surgery on my face to remove skin cancer. This will be the third one so far and I have a sinking feeling that this is only the beginning of what I can expect in the coming years.

A few days ago my sister and I looked on the computer at skin grafts on the face for cancer. Yikes! Now I can't get those images out of my head. It's unclear if I will get a graft or if they will just stretch the skin that's already there to cover the missing skin.

I used an old photo of me (above) to show where the past and future incisions/scars are/will be. It was shocking after the first operation to learn that though I had just a tiny place that had gone bad, the incision was huge in comparison. Then I realized it's like sewing. If you had a hole in a garment, you wouldn't just sew the edges together to repair it. That would leave the garment all twisted and lumpy. You'd have to make an even bigger hole and maybe a couple of darts to make the material finally lie flat. Same with skin.

I'm going to try not to think about it until Saturday morning. Dread, dread, dread.

More: Jennifer Siebel Newsom reveals facial scar after skin cancer surgery