Hi, I'm Jackie Gibon. I still struggle with acne that started in my teen years despite sitting firmly in mid-adulthood. Complicating medical conditions, including polycystic ovarian syndrome, make it difficult to overcome acne outbreaks that occur as hormones flare. Thanks to my strong interest in skincare routines, I have gleaned information that helps keep my skin in good shape otherwise. I just need help when my hormone levels run amok. Thankfully, I can rely on my dermatologist to provide adequate acne treatments that bring my skin back into line. I hope to share my experiences with these treatments with you through this site. I will talk about acne treatments, skincare routines and products you can use to control outbreaks. Please feel free to drop by anytime. Thanks for visiting.
When you go to your primary care physician or dermatologist to get a strange lesion on your skin looked at, you likely do not think of the possibility that you could have skin cancer. However, if the tests that are run indicate that you do have skin cancer, the likely treatment will be to go through skin cancer surgery to have the cancer cells removed. The recovery process after your skin cancer surgery as well as the subsequent treatment and monitoring of your skin health may be what you are unsure about.
Get to know more about how to take care of yourself after skin cancer surgery so you can be as healthy as possible going forward.
Wound Care After Surgery
After the skin cancer lesion has been removed, you will go through a recovery period as the incision site heals. Depending on the size of the lesion, as well as the number of tumors removed, this healing time can range from a few weeks to months or in rare cases, years.
Be sure to take proper care of your healing surgical incisions. Especially in the first few days after your surgery, keep activity that could strain or pull at the incision area to an absolute minimum. Also be sure that you clean the wound and keep it as dry as possible. And, of course, do not go to a tanning bed or engage in other activities that would expose your skin to intense UV energy.
Treatment Going Forward
If your skin cancer was only localized, meaning that the cancerous cells were confined to the tumor itself, then you may not require any other treatment for your skin cancer. However, if your cancer had spread or your oncologist is unsure about the margins of the tumor (they are not sure they successfully removed all cancer cells), you may require additional treatment.
Radiation therapy in the areas where the tumors were located is one option. Chemotherapy, either administered systemically through an IV or given as a topical cream to rub onto the skin are also options. More often than not, your treatment going forward will be to watch and wait to see if you have any other lesions in the future. Regular exams with a dermatologist and self-exams alike are usually enough to detect a problem going forward.
Preventing Future Issues
Of course, if you have had skin cancer lesions, it may not be a good idea to return to your exact same lifestyle and routines without making a few adjustments to prevent future skin cancer occurrences. Be sure to wear sunscreen every day (even in the winter) to protect your skin from UV radiation from the sun. Many daily face moisturizers and even makeup products have sunscreen in them, so at least wear those products daily.
If you were a tanning salon user prior to your battle with skin cancer, you should cease going to the tanning salon permanently. When you want to look tanner, instead choose an option like spray-on tans or even tinted lotions that you can get applied at a salon or do yourself at home.
Now that you better know how to take care of yourself after skin cancer surgery, you can be sure that you take the steps necessary to keep yourself healthy for as long as possible. For more information, check out places like Countryside Dermatology & Laser Center.
Share9 March 2016
