Today I had my follow-up with the surgeon who performed my excision so she could check the scar. It’s been just about 10 weeks since the procedure.
It took awhile to get into a room and seen. Hopefully, that’s not a sign that there’s more melanomas getting looked at. The doctor finally came into room, took a quick look at the scar, and said it was healing well. She mentioned that because of the tension on the skin (after all, she needed take a chunk of tissue out of the leg and then sew it back together) that the raised areas of the scar may need a year to smooth out.
So, upshot is, I have another follow-up with her in six months to check on the appearance of the scar. She said that she could laser it to try to help reduce the redness; but that she felt that she wanted to wait awhile because melanoma scars sometimes contains some of the nasty cells that like to make a reappearance. And the laser can sometimes mask that. I’m OK with the scar as it is right now. I mean, I would prefer not to have it at all, but the alternative (keeping the melanoma in my leg) is a heck of a lot worse.
For those playing at home, here’s a photo of what the scar looks like now:
The scar at 10 weeks
It looks a lot better than the first week, that’s for sure! Obviously, it’s still pretty noticeable if I’m wearing shorts or a shorter skirt. But on the whole, I’m not stressed about how it looks right now. Of course, it’s been pretty cold here in Austin the past few weeks so it’s not like I’m parading around in shorts either. We’ll see as the weather turns warmer how I feel towards it.