Gravity

It's official--the Cica-Care strips don't stay on my face any better than the ScarAway strips did.  In fact, I think Cica-Care is worse.  After a few days the stickiness (is that the silicone?) seems to wear off.  And the strip just slides off my face, even at night.  One night I taped a Band Aid over it to keep it on.  When I got up the next morning, the strip slipped through the Band Aid and fell off.  I think the Cica-Care is more susceptible to gravitational pull because it's thicker and heavier.  I try to keep the strips on through breakfast, but invariably they come off and I lose track of them.  One Cica-Care strip ended up under my cereal bowl and in the dishwasher before I found it; today a ScarAway strip fell off and I found it on the kitchen floor.  I just have to resign myself to the fact that I'm not going to keep a strip on my face for 12 hours unless I sleep for 12 hours--and I'm not going to.  The best I can hope for is 8 hours--a few in the evening and the rest overnight.  Some days, when I'm home more, I may be able to wear the strip a few more hours during the day.  The strip stays on better when I wear a rejuvenated one during the day (as opposed to trying to keep one on in the morning that's been on my face overnight).  By rejuvenated, I mean one that's been washed and dried and laying in the ScarAway case.  But I've already thrown out one Cica-Care strip--it had lost all its stickiness; you really couldn't tell the difference between the two sides.  I'm not even sure how much good it does to cover a scar with a worn-out strip.  And who knows how much good this is doing, compared to the counter factual--that some amount of healing would occur without the silicone strips.  Time heals all wounds--to varying degrees.  Who knows how long it will take, or to what degree the wound will heal.

CicaCare vs ScarAway

The verdict is in--CicaCare won't stay on my face, either.  I woke up at some point last night to find the strip had slid and bunched up on my face.  I pushed it back in place where it stayed until the morning.  But CicaCare says if at all possible, wear the strip all the time.  That just won't work.  When I try to wear the ScarAway strip during the day, I get preoccupied with whether it's staying in place--and invariably it falls off and I have to hunt for it.  I can't believe I have to mess with this for the next 2-4 months.  That is if I want to have as small a scar as possible on my face.

It's too bad these products don't adhere well to the face--if there's any place where you'd want to minimize a scar, it's on the face.  I have a surgical scar on the side of my left big toe that's still visible, but I don't really care.  Not that much, anyway.  I tried silicon strips there--very difficult for them to adhere, and I think I gave up.  I don't plan to give up on my face.  But I have to be realistic about how many hours a day I can have a strip on my face.

I don't know whether CicaCare holds up any better than ScarAway, since I just got the CicaCare from Amazon.com yesterday.  The CicaCare instructions say a strip should last anywhere from 14-28 days (!).  ScarAway says its strip will last about a week; in reality, they start adhering less well after one day.

The two products are physically quite different.  ScarAway is very thin, and is light brown--looks like a fabric BandAid.  CicaCare is about twice as thick, and is see-through.  It's more squishy and gel-like, and hard to tell the difference between the two sides (sticky and non-sticky).  Also, you supposedly can wash the CicaCare strip and reapply it right away; the ScarAway strip has to dry (which is why I have 3 different strips I'm using--two to trade off, and a third that's twice as wide as the other two.  The wider one doesn't stay on any better than the narrower ones do).

CicaCare is quite a bit more expensive--one 5" x 6" sheet cost nearly $45 on Amazon; I bought the ScarAway for over $20 (I think) at CVS; the ScarAway box has 8 1.5" x 3" sheets.  Based on the two sizes, I'm getting between three and four times as much silicone sheeting with ScarAway.  So if CicaCare doesn't last as long as it says, it won't be worth the price.  We'll see.

At least CicaCare acknowledges that the strip might not adhere.  It suggests holding the strip on with " a lightly elastic conforming bandage or tape".  I think that means the type of bandage that you can roll around something.  That would have worked for my foot, but won't work for my face.

As I said, too bad it's so hard to apply silicone to the face, where the need to reduce scarring is great.  I don't really know if ScarAway's scar serum is much of a substitute, but I'm using that when I'm not wearing a gel strip.  At least two more months of this.  Ugh.

New Word(s) for the Day: Dysplastic Nevi

I just got the news that both moles my dermatologist removed a week ago are precancerous--the official term is dysplastic nevus (plural is nevi).  If you look at the National Cancer Institutes's website, these "atypical moles" generally don't turn into melanoma.  It also says, "Normally, people do not need to have a dysplastic nevus or common mole removed".  However, I'm guessing that once someone (like me) has had melanoma, they protocol is to remove the dysplastic nevi.  Also, according to Wikipedia, there are different types of atypical moles, so the biopsy may have indicated that I have the type that's more likely to become melanoma.   Anyway, my dermatologist is ensuring that the margins are clear.  Her office said the entire root system was removed from the mole on my thigh, but not on my chest.  So I have to go back in so she can remove the entire root system.  It must not be significant surgery, since she's able to do it in her office.

I asked the office assistant what kind of cancer it could turn into--he just said it wasn't skin cancer yet.  But looking at the National Cancer Institute and the Skin Cancer Foundation (Skincancer.org) websites, these atypical moles are associated only with melanoma.  In fact, the Skin Cancer Foundation website says "dysplastic nevi are unusual benign moles that may resemble melanoma".  Drat.  More potential melanoma.

I could tell by the way they handled this call that something was up--it wasn't just going to be "everything's normal".  But I wasn't as nervous this time as I was when I got the call about the blotch on my face being melanoma.  Guess I'm getting used to hearing about cancer.  Unfortunately.

Twitching (down) Dog

During yoga class yesterday (participant, not instructor), some muscles on the left side of my face started twitching.  Especially when I was doing inversions--Down Dog to be specific.  My guess is the extra blood flow from having my head down.   And the muscles around my left eye twitch occasionally.  And also parts of the left side of my mouth.  I assume these are related to my surgery, part of the healing process.  I hope.

I'm up earlier than usual today (4am) because I woke up with a splitting headache.  I took some Tylenol, but ended up getting up anyway.  Not sure what the cause was--the Frownies?  The scar sheet (I used a wider one last night)?  The Afghan food I ate at dinner?  The yoga inversions?   All of the above?

The new, wider scar sheet I used last night stayed on the entire night--but the operative word may be "new".  These ScarAway strips seem to work well only when they're new.  So we'll see how things go tonight when I try th use the wider strip again.

I researched (OK, googled) scar sheet reviews and couldn't find anything other than Amazon.com user reviews.  Many people have the same issue I do with ScarAway--the strips just don't stay on.  One reviewer suggested using Cica Care sheets--more expensive, but hold up better, the reviewer said.  So I've ordered a box of sheets and will test it out once it arrives.  Which knowing Amazon will be sooner than they estimate.  (Is Amazon an it or a they?)

Oh, and I found the wayward ScarAway strip the fell off the night before last--stuck to the back of my pajama tops.

Not Exactly Seven Days

Gone, vanished, nowhere to be found.  And that was the second time last night that my ScarAway strip fell off my face.  4am.  I don't know what time it was when it fell off the first time.  Interesting how losing the strip must have woken me up.  Makes it hard to figure out how to wear the strip "at least 12 hours a day" when it won't even stay on at night.  And since I'm somehow waking up after the strip falls off, it's interrupting my sleep.  And sleep is good for a lot of reasons, including helping things heal.

I never did find the lost strip--must be stuck on the sheet somewhere, but I couldn't find it this morning.  I had used a second strip during the day and evening, after I got back from teaching yoga, so I used that strip for the rest of the night (one hour, since I get up at 5am.  I did fall back to sleep, luckily).  Today I started with the silicone serum, and will switch to a scar strip this evening after my flute lesson.  I like the little massage ball bearings on the serum applicator, so I also massaged my lower lip, where I have fairly pronounced lines, and also at my brow line, where the creases looked deeper because I forgot to wear a Frownie last night.  (Too many things to remember--wound management for the two spots she removed; scar strip on the cheek; Frownie on the forehead...)  I have no idea whether silicone does anything for "fine lines" but it's worth a try.  Extends the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning, though.  And as a result I totally forgot about a retiree breakfast get-together this morning.  Too late to go now, since it's at least a 20 minute drive.  And I have to be back for my 11am yoga class (participant, not teacher).

Not the first morning appointment I've totally forgotten about.  I'm trying to train myself to look at my calendar first thing each morning, after I missed two other meetings, but I forgot.  This is an issue with much less structured time--I'm fine with the routine appointments--my yoga teaching and flute lesson, and I work hard to remember doctors' appointments, since there's a cost to not going (both in terms of maybe having to pay for a missed appointment, but also in terms of how long it might take to get another appointment).  So there's a theme here:  if a meeting or appointment involves money (either me getting paid, or me paying) I'm much better at remembering than if it's a volunteer activity or social get-together.  I'm sure that says something about my priorities.

Back to the scar:  This is the first time I've posted a photo to my blog--here's me this morning (11/01/13) and how my scar looks.  I don't know why I looked jaundiced--must be the lighting.  But the scar looks redder "in person".  But you can see the gash line near the corner of my lip--that's the area that's thick and red and raised.  On the other hand, the lines on my face don't look as deep to me as they look in this photo.  So I guess the world sees me differently than I do.

Here's how my scar looked in early September (09/11/1) about 2 1/2 weeks after the surgeon stitched me up (08/30/13):

I know, it looks worse now, but that could partly be the lighting.  Almost looks like I had makeup on in the Sept. photo; I don't in the Nov. one.  I'll take a photo every couple of weeks or so to see if I can document the progress.

Meanwhile I will Google to find out if there's another silicone scar product that gets better reviews than ScarAway...

Scar Away Day 3

So much for trying to wear the Scar Away strip all day.  I couldn't even keep in on through breakfast.  As with the first night, the strip came off at the edges while I was sleeping; I had to press into it to keep it on.  The edges start to lift up, and it's at the lower edge where the least-healed portion of my surgical scar is.  Same problem as with the bandages I had on after surgery--the scar line is at most 1/8" from the corner of my mouth; the area is curved and the muscles move a lot.  It also seems like the adhesive is wearing off, even though the Scar Away instructions say you should be able to use the same strip for 7 days.  We'll see.

I had been planning to put a new strip on after I washed my face this morning, but since the strip I had on last night didn't make it through my first waking hour, I could tell a new strip wasn't going to work. I teach two yoga classes today, so I'm talking and moving--I think I would be constantly trying to keep the strip on.  This morning, every time I looked down, it seemed, the strip was on the floor.  Taking on lint and cat hair, until finally I stopped trying to put it back on.  I washed it, of course, and am leaving it to dry per instructions, so we'll see how it does this evening.

But I think I'll try something different tonight--I'll use a larger portion of the strip, assuming it's not too large to fit on my cheek.  Originally, I cut one strip into four quarters--cut in half width- and lengthwise.    I wouldn't be able to use the full strip length; it's just too long and would have to go underneath my chin.  That wouldn't stay on--too big a curve.  But I may be able to use the full width--it would extend across my entire cheek.  The half width doesn't cover the outer blotchy area of the scar--it's not a raised area, but it is blotchy.  The dermatologist said the silicone strips should help with redness as well as the raised portion of the scar.  So we'll see--maybe a wider strip will stay on better.  Or not.

Meanwhile, I used the Scar Away serum this morning, along with a 2-minute massage.  Not sure how well the serum works, but that's the best I can do during the day.

Scar Away?

Part of my surgical scar has healed really well--at the upper end of the stitching, about 1/4 inch diagonally away from my left nostril.  The whole scar line covers about 1 1/2 inches down the crease between my nose and mouth--although it would be longer if it were straight.  The middle part is a red blotch, about 1 1/4 inches at the widest.  But the lower part has not healed well--it's raised and thick.  Hypertropic, my dermatologist said.   The lower portion the scar ends 1/8 inches from my mouth, and this has been the problem.  I had trouble keeping the bandage on that area from the beginning--when I ate, the corner of the bandage would get wet and start to peel off.  And when I stopped wearing the bandage and used the strips that are supposed to hold the cut line in place while it heals--the strip near my mouth fell off after a few days.  They were supposed to stay on for about a week before they fell off by themselves.  Now, while the upper end of the scar line is nearly invisible, the lower portion (about 5/8th of an inch) is red and thick.  The thickness gets smaller as I move my finger north from the left corner of my mouth.

So now I've started silicone treatment to try to reduce the scar's thickness and redness.  The surgeon didn't say to do it (and I asked); but my dermatologist told me yesterday to start applying the silicone strips at night.  I asked about massage; she said just use the strips.  I bought ScarAway silicone scar sheets, and applied my first one last night.  I woke up at some point and noticed that the lower end was starting to come off.  Probably moisture (OK, drool) from my mouth).  And the ScarAway instructions say to use the strips for at least 12 hours each day--so more than just at night.  I don't mind wearing the strip during the day--in fact, I feel better with the scar covered--but I can't see how it's going to stay in place through eating, flute playing, and exercise, if it couldn't even fully stay in place while I was asleep.  Today, I bought ScarAway Scar Dimishing Serum to use when I can't wear the scar sheet.  The applicator comes with little massage ball bearings, so I'm doig

I'm still in the process of figuring out how to maximize the daily use of the silicone scar sheets, so I can get at least 12 hours.  I think I'll experiment tomorrow with wearing one during the day, and see how it goes.  I'll have to swap out two different strips, because I plan to wear makeup.  I'll have to remove the strip at night to wash my face, clean that strip and use a dry one to apply for the night.  The instructions say to use the strips for 8-12 weeks; the dermatologist's assistant recommended 3 months.  Guess I'll keep using them until I go back for my next 3-month followup with the dermatologist.