Medical Staple Removal

Thursday I went in to the plastic surgeon's office to have the Mohs surgery staples removed. I just assumed my plastic surgeon would be the one doing the removal, and I came prepared with a joke to play one him. I bought along my staple removal to suggest he use it to remove the staples. The joke was on me as a physicians assistant came in to take the staples out.

surgical staple remover

The bottom jaw of the surgical staple remover is placed under the staple, and when the handles are pressed they bend the staple and pull it out of the skin. Theoretically, anyway. They do not give you any anesthesia for this procedure. 

The first couple staples came out with little effort on her part or pain on mine. Then she got to the tougher ones, and those hurt! I knew she had a total of 22 to take out, so it was not a fun time. There ended up to be 4 that she couldn't remove, and she had to get my surgeon after all. He did a little clean up on the crusted areas around the wounds, which seemed to help him get the last of them out. It was no picnic, and the larger wound ended up bleeding again. I'm not sure the staples are a better option than dissolvable stitches for wounds in the hair after all.

More Mohs Surgery

two grinches

Last Thursday I went to the plastic surgeon's office. I wore my grinch face mask as it mirrored my mood at having more skin cancer. It was ironic that the grinch greeted me in the waiting room. I was scheduled for Mohs surgery to remove the two basal cell carcinomas they found on my scalp. I had a tiny one in my hair on the left-hand side towards my forehead, and a larger one further back in my hair on the right-hand side. 

Dr. Mu was my surgeon again - she removed the squamous cell and the basal cell hiding below it from my nose in December of 2019. While she was unable to get clear margins on either of these after the first excisions, at least she was able to get all of them in the second cut. The one on my nose took five tries!

After she was done Dr. Freeman came in to do the closings. He discussed the pros and cons of stitches versus staples, and we decided to do the staples this time. I have not had them before, and it sounds just like you think it would. Imagine someone holding a staple gun up to your head and firing away. It took 8 staples to close the one on the left and 14 to close the one on the right. 

Mohs followed by staples

hair loss

I was able to manage the pain with Tylenol, which is good as stronger drugs make me sick. The larger wound did bleed a bit that night, so I covered it with Neosporin and a gauze pad. Though I was advised I could wash my hair after 24 hours, I chose to wait an extra day to do so. A large chunk of my hair came out, I'm guessing from the area of the large incision. I'm not sure why they didn't just go ahead and cut the hair in that spot. While the dried blood came out with the double shampooing, the solution Dr. Freeman used to clean my head before closing up the incisions did not all come out. I can still feel it caked on my scalp. I guess I'll need to pick on it a bit before the next shampoo.

Next week I go back in to have the staples removed. Hopefully that won't be too bad.