Botched

Has anyone else had a botched surgery? I'm sure that this has happened to me. I had a red lesion on my cheek horizontal level with my ear lobe and extending towards my nose. Above that, I had harmless brown age spots and a couple of other brown age spots at the bottom of it.

The red lesion was about one inch by one inch, and I was expecting an incision scar about 1.5". Instead I ended up with an almost vertical scar 3" long, and also changes to my face which looked at like I had had a facelift but only on one side of my face. This didn't make sense to me, and I had a lot of bruising and redness but as time goes on I have increasingly thought that part of the red lentigo is still there in the middle of my scar. Two days ago I had the news that the histology report shows that now I have to have further surgery. At this stage, I can see and feel that part of the lesion is still there in the middle of my scar.

More surgery in 2021

I now truly believe that the surgeon concentrated on the brown age spots and made the cut to excise them instead of the actual lesion. With margins and a vertical incision, this now makes sense. So effectively she took part in the red lentigo, as a good skin margin, but not all of it, and that is why I am going to have to undergo further surgery in the new year.

I feel that medical negligence has taken place, and I am going to challenge it. My face is so tight that I can't see how they are going to be able to get all of the red lentigo without making a skin graft. But I'll wait to see what they propose.

Finding support

The shape of my face has already been changed. I no longer have the lines around my mouth on the left, whereas I still have a saggy mouth and jowl on the right side. The shape of my cheek, on the left side, is now really apple-shaped, and still flat on the right. It's looking like I have been given a facelift on one side and I look really odd.

I am desperate and broken inside. I have cried buckets of tears and suffered mental distress. My aftercare nurse referred me to counseling but I am not that sort of person. The only comfort I have found is with a skin cancer group on Facebook. And now I have shared my story here.