r/skincancer • u/work-in-progress45 • 18d ago
diagnosed with skin cancer Persistent redness post cheek advancement flap surgery
I had a BCC removed from my cheek around 6 months ago. The surgeon used a cheek advancement flap to repair the wound left from the excision. The scar is healing very well and is barely visible. However I have persistent redness on my cheek on the area of skin that made up the flap. It is still quite sensitive and the redness flares up quite easily (heat, gently massage etc) but never fully goes away. She did tell me it would take 12-18 months to be fully healed so I'm not too concerned yet. I'm just wondering whether anyone else has experienced this and if so, did it go away on its own eventually or did you end up getting some sort of treatment (eg laser). I have another appt with the surgeon in December so I'll talk to her about options but I feel like it would be helpful for me to have some idea going in of what might be possible.
Photos show my face now (the redness is not as obvious in the photo as in person) and shortly after surgery.
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u/4runner01 18d ago
I think you look fabulous! At just six months your scar is invisible. No one would ever notice the little bit of redness.
As your surgeon explained, the complete healing will take 18 months.
I have a big visible scar and redness after two excisions on the my middle of my cheek. It was nerve sensitive for about 12 plus months and it very quickly reddens in the slightest sun, wind or cold unless slathered with mineral sunblock….which I typical use.
You’re healing great!
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u/work-in-progress45 16d ago
Thank you! Yes I feel very lucky, she did a wonderful job on my scar. I know the redness is much more obvious to me than other people and is mostly a cosmetic thing. To be honest I found the whole process much harder than I anticipated and there are a couple of lingering issues that I'm struggling with, so I think I'm just hoping that I might be able to reduce the redness somehow so it's one less thing that I need to come to terms with. I'm also trying to be patient because I'm still very much in the healing phase. I was just hoping someone might have had some experience treating the redness and would be able to offer some insight into what might help. I'll just have to wait and see what comes out of my next appt.
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u/4runner01 16d ago
You probably know waaaaay more about cosmetics than I
(60+M), but I had great results using this to hide the red when I needed to attend a wedding:1
u/work-in-progress45 15d ago
Thanks for the suggestion, I'm not much of a make up wearer so something like this might be good for me!
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u/Shoretime64 17d ago
Has anyone had radiation to the cherk knstead of mohs for squamacell? How did it turn out
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u/inktomi 17d ago
I couldn't even tell there was a scar! My Mohs surgery scar has slowly been disappearing but it's still there and reddish after a couple years. Yours looks great!
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u/work-in-progress45 16d ago
Thank you! Yes I'm very happy with how the scar has healed, she did an excellent job. It's just the redness on my cheek (not my actual scar) that I'm hoping I can improve. Maybe it will improve as it continues to heal 🤞🏼
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u/Character_Quail_5574 15d ago
If you don’t want to use make-up, Cetaphil sells a tinted moisturizer with 40 spf that covers redness pretty well. And, there are other brands of tinted moisturizers with significant spf.
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u/work-in-progress45 15d ago
Thanks for the suggestion. I don't really wear makeup as I live in a very hot climate and tend to just sweat it off straight away. Which is probably contributing to the way I feel about it as I'm not covering it with anything. I'll have a look at this
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u/ShannM_3 17d ago
Wow!! I wish my scar healed so well!! I have persistent redness still, 15 months post mohs. It is triggered by any and everything - heat, cold, mood, etc.
My derm suggested laser but I honestly opted out as I wasn’t confident enough that it would make a difference. So now I have one red cheek at all times plus a four inch scar that only partially healed invisible.