how to I handle repeated skin cancers

Hi - thank you so much for being here and sharing your story. I love to hear that you've found a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon that you love! In any health journey, it's so important to work with a team that you trust and connect with. It's not always easy, but I appreciate your advice to our community to keep looking if your healthcare provider is not the right fit for you. Wishing you well as you prepare for your lesion removal - please keep me posted on how it goes! All the best, Alexa (SkinCancer.net moderator)

Thanks for sharing with us. Your experience is valuable to others. Keep us posted on things. Best of luck to you!

I had the lesion removed 48 hours ago and changed the discharge dressing this morning. It was diagnosed by my general dermatologist as 'small' and the Mohs surgeon gave me a finger spread measure of its size after she completed the procedure of about 3/4". This morning I measured the suture line a little over 1 1/4" and not the angle I expected. A little disappointing in that respect, in regards to pain management this incident has been the least painful I've ever experienced. The surgeon and staff as always were professional and polite, but I do get a sense they sense my fatigue as conversation is more challenging. I'm sure they're accustomed to exchanging nothing more than small talk with most patients and never see them again, but we passed that a long time ago. They did grimace a little when giving the usual instructions that includes the unlikely possibility that we'll see each other again.

The competency of the entire team that I've been fortunate to have has always been exceptional, and that is due more to my luck drawing them in the arbitrary medical system we have. The difficulty I and others face when you have multiple diagnosis' over decades is not the competency usually, it's recognizing the nature of the relationship between care team and patient and how the usual set of instructions when patients like me are sent off (until next week but for practical purposes this case) about the unlikely possibility that I'll be back to see them. I've seen both of my doctor's kids graduate high school, college and one is now in residency as an epidemiologist. I know the script that most patients get, but I and others like me, need a different script. Given how our health care system does not truly value mental health and the pressure for most providers to process patients for billable hours I'm not optimistic that even very good providers like mine will get the support she (both of them) need to address the holistic needs of their patients. Leaving this to the patient to advocate for themselves in their most vulnerable state should not be considered an option if we did have a health care system that sought optimal patient outcomes. I can't say that I have a particularly successful method or process for dealing with this, I was just lucky to fall into a situation with genuinely good people, so it's not me. The difficulty of multiple diagnosis' is a challenge for the patient, but as I'm seeing it's a challenge for the good people that are my providers too.