mOlé Part Deux

Well, I finally got this collage together, as promised, to show the 'before' and 'after' of the mole removals I had a few weeks ago.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the 'before' pictures I took turned out too blurry, so I was forced to use the only remotely recent photo I had, and it's not too hot either. For a reference point, think of the mole that was near my left eyebrow as being a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil eraser. The mole that was in my sideburn was half the size.

Overall, the removal was not as bad as I'd anticipated and I had kinda psyched myself up that the moles would be removed via laser (after reading an article online), but when I got there the procedure was actually performed with a scalpel.

I was given shots to numb the areas where I was having the moles removed and I was shocked that they actually really worked (unlike at the dentist, where sometimes I have to have more than one shot to get me numb). She told me I shouldn't feel any pain but that I might feel some pressure. And it was true, I didn't feel a thing, but I did hear the 'crunch' sound when the scalpel pierced the flesh for the first time, and the 'tink tink tink' of the very sharp scalpel digging out the mole. Blech. I wish I'd brought my MP3 player (when I go to the dentist, I make use of their Walkman, cuz I don't know about you, but for me the sound is the worst part of going to the dentist. Once that's blocked out, it's smooooth sailin'). Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, right?

Anyway, after the stitches were put in (which I didn't even feel), I was instructed to keep a band-aid on the areas for a couple of days and made an appointment to come back a week later to get the stitches removed.

And that's pretty much it. No big deal, but when you haven't had many medical procedures, it initially feels like a big deal. LOL!

The biopsy results were negative (whew!) and I was told to keep SPF-30 on the area near my eyebrow, regardless if I went out in the sun or not. It had more to do with the skin pigment being consistent with the rest of my skin. Little did I know that a tube/bottle of SPF-30 costs like $9 (ridiculous), so I opted for the $2 SPF-30 lip balm instead. LOL! I checked with the pharmacist first and he said it would be A-OK. Ancient Chinese secret huh?


[1] This is a picture I took of part of the medical district. It was taken from the parking garage where I parked the morning of my procedure.

[2] The area with stitches (kinda hard to see...see, I told you the pictures were blurry).

[3] My lame 'before' picture, which is hard to see, but you get the general idea.

[4] The AWFUL 'after' picture taken in the medical plaza's bathroom under fluorescent lights (gee, can you tell? God, I look green).

[5] Biopsy photos of my moles. Mole A is the one that was on my head, near my eyebrow. Mole B is the mole that was located in my right sideburn.

[6] Proof positive that olive loaf really does look an awful lot like a mole biopsy photo.