I've had this procedure on my chin for the same reason. I don't remember taking any days off for it.

I had Mohs (pedantic note: no apostrophe, the guy's name was Mohs not Moh) for a basal lesion near my eyelid quite a few years ago. They got clean margins on the first slice, so I only had one round, and after sitting in the waiting room with the excision open for a while while they looked at it under the microscope, they just took me back in and sewed me up. It can take multiple rounds though, as the whole idea is to take as little healthy tissue as possible so they go shallow at first. I wasn't training much then, no swimming so all I can say is that at about 10 days out I was down to some steri strips and the internal stitches. The first thing you'll probably be cleared to do is ride, then run, then swim, as to how long of a day for each, ask your doc. The procedure itself was pretty much painless - I'm squeamish so it was kind of gross, but once I got past the injection of the local, it didn't hurt.

I had one of these removed from my forehead. I went to a plastic surgeon. He told me that "dermatologists don't know how to cut, they just scrape." Got rid of it all in one big cut, and the scar is almost invisible. I liked his philosophy. You don't pussy-foot around with cancerous lesions.

I had it done for a skin cancer on my chest a few years ago. I seem to remember that they didn't want me to run for a while, since it might jar the wound, and obviously I couldn't swim immediately, but I believe I was back on a bike trainer pretty quickly.

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

Had the procedure done for a squamous cell carcinoma on my forehead about six weeks ago. Doc had to do two rounds. At this stage the section is clearly visible if you look for it, but certainly not glaring. The procedure itself was pretty simple and pain free. Hurt for a day after, but nothing terrible. I was training the next day, though i took it a little easy for a day or two.

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Jonathan Cane
City Coach Multisport
http://www.citycoach.org

It all depends on the amount of skin that needs to be excised and the tension on the sutures/wound, in most cases you should be able to train the same or next day, Personally i wouldnt swim for 2-3 days. asking the surgeon/derm after he has done the procedure would always be the best

I had it performed on my forearm a few years ago. It did not even need stitches so recovery time was nil.

I have fair hair and love the outdoors, so i've lost count as to how many i've had carved out of me. Maybe 5 or 6 so far. Thats sad.

Anyway, there's not downtime needed w/ training. Just a small area w/ stitches. I'd stay out of pool though, until stitches are out.

The cut area will be much bigger than you think, as they have to make the cut much longer than the area they are removing, or they have issues sewing it back up w/o crimping the skin.

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Had it Moh's done on my temple - about the size of a dime. One cut and everything was good. A couple of stitches and a headache for a day and I was good to go. Now I've had spots cut out on both quads and that limited my running for a couple of days because the muscle would flex and pull everything. Last one on chest near armpit. Couldn't swim until it healed.

Not really sure if Mohs is any different than any other the other cuts I've had other than a doctor with a fancy title and a fellowship. I'm sure it cost more than the others. You should be good since it's on your head.

I had a mole surgically removed from the back of my leg when I was a teenager. Risk of it being malignant.

Went water skiing shortly after, stitches still in place, opening went septic, now left with scar tissue on the back of the knee. Not the most obvious spot, but wouldn't want it on my face or somewhere exposed.


Play it safe - wait a few days if you're not confident. Rather that than have to redo it all for cosmetic reasons.

I agree, don't go in a lake but one doc told me the pool was okay but the other doc said no pool swimming until stitches come out. Probably best to play it safe and stay out of the pool for a week.

from what I understand basel cell is the slowest growing skin cancer, you got that going for you. I had a squamous removed from under my right eye. The docs knew it was big going in but everyone was surprised at how much it took to get to clear margins. The Mohs surgery wasn't bad at all. The facial rivision to cover the hole that was left sucked - eyelid sewn shut, scaffold to brow and nose bone to keep eyelid from drooping, skin of face peeled off from under eye to ear to neck, stretched and reattached. Eye surgeon and plastic surgeon working in concert. Hurt like a sumbitch. out of training for a couple months. That said, when you hear the word cancer the first question is can you cut it out. Cut it out but forewarn wife and kids that it can be, though usually isn't, worse than expected. They'll be happy when you come home with nothing more than a scab and a band-aid. good luck.

Yeah, i had a Mohs on my face, in the fold of my nose for a basal (one of about 10 i've had whacked, but this was the only Mohs). I was at the docs office for 8 hours. Required 3 rounds to get it all, and 2 layers of stitches. Then I had a huge pressure bandage on my face for 24 hours. I looked like Dr. Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

No swimming for a week. Was able to ride by Saturday, 3 days after the procedure. Didn't run til later in the week.

For those who say, oh, it's not big deal, Mohs is a completely different animal than what you are describing. it's not your average slice and dice, or burn and scrape, of whatever your derm does. I've had about 10 basals removed, so I know all the techniques for getting shit whacked. Mohs is pretty invasive.

Once they get the lidocaine in, you should have no pain. My derm kept hitting me with lido multiple times during the day. Once it wore off, I took some leftover Vitamin V (vicodin) and had a glass of wine, and enjoyed begin stupid and high til I passed out at 8pm. Highly recommend it!

Agreed - I've had 1 Mohs technique, 1 ED&C (easy), and one BOI (big ol' incision). When I said they go 'shallow at first' for Mohs, that's relatively speaking, it's still a serious initial cut, perhaps in a football outline, because as noted somewhere above they need lots of room to pull it back together smoothly no matter how deep they end up going.

My worst experience was the BOI, because as it turned out, the biopsy had gotten everything and there was no cancer left in the big bite they took around an otherwise tiny spot, so I ended up with a 3" scar for nothing...it was in a more or ness non-cosmetically sensitive area (leg) so I wasn't going to be offered Mohs anyway, but had they done it they probably would have left more of me behind. It's pretty well healed now, the guy was not a hack, but still it was super annoying to go back and have him check the stitches and tell me it turned out it wasn't necessary to begin with.

depends on what they find! mine was the size of a stack of three quarters, scared the shot out of me when I asked for a mirror before they made it bigger to stitch it up. I felt like i'd had a face lift, there was no way I could run or swim for multiple days. Yours maybe minimal, or maybe huge should they not find clean margins. Expect the worst, and you can't lose.

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http://theworldthroumyeyes.tumblr.com/

I had Mohs on my lower lip for squamous cell - two slices and he got it all. The most painful part of the whole experience was when they injected the lidocaine into where they were doing the surgery.... runner up in the pain department was getting sweat into the incision as it healed ;-)

I decided to go sans stitches to allow me to get back to training faster. Had to stay out of the pool until the gaping wound ungaped, but really, I didn't feel like swimming anyway with a hole in my lip lol. Ask your doctor what s/he recommends about return to exercise, but realize they tend to be ultra conservative and the main issue, imo is scarring (other than the swimming, which is bacteria and infection). Make sure you wear sunscreen as soon as practicable on the scar area too... and mederma really does work on limiting the scarring.

Good luck, and invest in good sunscreen :-)

I just had the procedure two weeks ago for basal cell carcinoma on the left side of my nose. The suregeon was able to get it all the first time. 18 stitches, 9 interior and 9 exterior. Wasn't to bad except that the local hurts like hell. Will have a basal cell on the right side of my nose done in March. I took a week completely off and then continued training as normal. There is still a slight scar but nothing extreme. Hope the second goes as well as this one. Again, it's not too bad. You will be ok.

4x mohs for me. two on my neck, one on the side of my nose and one on my temple. three were Basal Cell, one was Squamous Cell. THe one on my nose required a fold-over skin graft from the other side of my bridge so I was out of the water fro about 10 days. Other three were about 5 days of limited water exposure. All but the nose one were clean margins in one pass. Nose took 2 passes.

Good luck.

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

mine on forehead is a good 2 cm.they say.. pretty large. Research of wounds, reconstruction and photos for forehead surgery, absoluting freaking me out.

Future Elephant Man

I’m recently diagnosed with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma so that’s why I went looking for this old thread.

It’s amazing how quickly these can pop up. I developed a spot right beside my nose that I thought may have been an inflamed sebaceous gland or something. It didn’t go away, and then failed to heal up after I accidentally nicked it while shaving. This all occurred over about 4 weeks. Went to the dermatologist and she said squamous cell carcinoma and I should have Mohs surgery done.

The day of the Mohs procedure ended up taking about 6.5 hours. Had to have two different cuts because the margins were not clean with the first round. Luckily, she was able to get clean margins with the second round but I was told I have a “high risk” SCC. Went in with a spot not even as big as a dime and ended up with an incision about 2.5 inches long, beside my nose.

Because of the high risk nature of my SCC, I had to have a CT scan done. This is just one more example of how our health care system is screwed up, and insurance companies have way too much power. Because of the risk of metastasis, a CT scan was ordered of my head, sinus area (face), and neck. The insurance company said “we will only approve the head CT, and not the other two”. In my mind, this was the least useful of the three CT scans because the biggest risk (with my particular cancer) was looking for lymph node metastasis. So, I told the imaging center to not cancel any of the CT scans and I’d just pay for the other two out of pocket. I already had enough fear/anxiety and I did not want to wait any longer. I’m very fortunate I can pay for these scans but it saddens me to think of how many other patients don’t have the money to pay for these, and possibly get inadequate coverage, and live in fear of the unknown. It’s maddening.

After the CT scan was an ultrasound guided lymph node biopsy for two palpable nodes on the same side as where the cancer was found. Very very thankful these came back NO cancer as well. Doc said they were most likely a “reactive” lymphadenopathy because of the large incision on my face and the immune response to the healing. It still freaked me out.

After the Mohs, sutures out a week later. No heavy lifting, or strenuous exercise, until one week after the Mohs. Advised no running for two weeks. Derm follow up every three months, and self check of neck for lymph nodes constantly.

Main reason for the post is to remind everyone to please take the possibility of skin cancer very seriously. Use your sunscreen and reapply frequently!!! I did not think about it because I “tan easily” and was very nonchalant about using sunscreen. This cancer diagnosis really kicked me in the nuts and woke me up bigtime.

I have had too many Mohs procedures to count, definitely more than 10, and several on my face or forehead. I would not exercise for the first 3-4 days. You want the incision to start healing, and if you get your heart rate elevated it will interfere with the healing process. If it was on your arm or leg, you probably wouldn’t care what the scar looks like. But on your face or forehead, you want it to heal well with a minimal scar. You are risking having it not look great if you rush back into training too quickly.


Take a few days off and relax. It won’t hurt you.

My husband had the surgery and was back to running the next day. The doctor told him that if he was not in pain he could get back to training. He had to keep it clean so he had to have it covered with a bandage and then immediately cleaned and changed out the bandage after training sessions.

The pain wasn’t bad, he only took Advil. It also healed really fast, in two-three weeks he was healed up and he had a massive chunk taken out of his cheek all the way to his chin.

Keep it as dry as possible in the shower, don’t let the water hit the area directly until there is a good layer of healing on the wound.

Good luck! Wishing you a successful surgery and speedy recovery!

This really hits home. Yes the ct scan immediately is a good idea. I just finished 7 weeks of chemo and radiation on squamous cell from old lip moh’s that attached to trigeminal nerve behind the lip and traveled all along it leaving a trail of cancer and leaving a tumor at the base of my brain. I am being treated at Mayo Clinic and their current procedure for squamous in the lip is the moh’s along with current ct scan and radiation to avoid shit that I am going thru. 10 years ago not the procedure which my doctors say mine was traveling up into my head for up to 10 years. Just clean lines is no gurantee but very rare to travel up, and if a cancer cell escapes it typically will go to the lymph nodes.

Hope you recover quickly. Skin checks are no joke. I had a tiny freckle removed four years ago and it was melanoma (in situ). Fortunately, I had a good doc that spotted it. He sent me to a surgeon that literally took a giant cut out of my back with sixty stitches. My doctor basically said the cut was way overkill but he was not taking any chances while it was still just on the surface. I went every ninety days for follow-up skin checks every three years after and now go every six months. I tell people to go twice a year for skin checks even if you are clean every time.