...I had a skin thing removed from my left hand.
It turned out to be Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
I go back for a checkup Tuesday. If it comes back
the doc suggest doing Moh's surgery. I think they
cut it out and inject a local chemo into the area.

Unlike HCL I know why this happened--too much sun
on my hands. The romantic view would be, I was in the
jungle killing VC while that happened, the truth of
it is, driving a car for years fried my skin. NOW! that
I have skin cancer... I have been religiously applying
generous amounts of sunblock. SPF 70, currently. I
guess it's like locking the door after the horses
got out--only some horses are still inside so maybe
I can save the herd.

Ah sorry to hear that. Is that serious? I couldn't find scaramouch cell carcinoma on a google search. Did you mean squamous cell instead of scaramouch? Well, the internet search landed me on a page with the lyrics for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and I had the song stuck in my head for most of the afternoon...

"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright'ning me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo figaro"

In any case, I can definitely understand why you'd be using ample amounts of sunblock. That seems like a good precaution.

Well, I had to look this up, but (in case anyone was wondering--lol) the Mohs procedure was not invented by same person who invented the Mohs scale for measuring the hardness of minerals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs

Friedrich Mohs, a 19th century German geologist who developed...
Mohs scale of mineral hardness, a scale used in materials science to describe hardness

Frederic E. Mohs, an American doctor who developed...
Mohs surgery, a microscopically controlled surgery highly effective for common types of skin cancer

....with too many swear words.

Squamous Cell thingies.

So the doc tells me Mohs surgery s where they
cut out the cancer, look under the microscope
see if any more cells are still "in" there
then cut or not--according to what they find.
It can take up to 4 hours, and they'll patch
you up, make you wait and let you go if they
think they find it all. This is to limit damage
of the nose, face, etc. so the reconstruction
is minimal. Mohs was the name of the guy who
made up the technique. He's related to Larrys
and Curleys --no Harrys...




In my case there's not much to worry about.
Same stuff as the rest of my life...like HCL,
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But for now, I'm kewl.