Let me start by saying I think I was a bit ambitious about gaining 5 years on my appearance by simply removing some moles. That was based on seeing the transformation made by a professor of mine who had moles on her face in college, and how dramatic the change was once she had them removed.
I think the recapturing-years-in-appearance factor depends on the moles and their size and color. She had 4 or 5 and hers were like the ends of erasers and were all pink or brown. She also had at least 15-20 years on my current age so she had more wiggle room on improving her apparent age than I do at 33.
I went for a consultation on March 12th to just find out what kind of options there are for removing facial moles. Turned out I could have it done right then and there. The dermatologist, Dr. Farrah Shah was wonderful. She gave me a choice of two techniques to use and then suggested we remove one using the least scarring technique and see what happened. I had a choice between slicing it off or having her go in and remove it from the root. We decided to start with the slicing and see how my skin healed before touching the others. She could always go in and remove at the root later if need be.
The actual procedure did not hurt. But the healing did hurt a bit the next day. It was just sore like a scab and itched like crazy. Nothing unexpected – it is healing skin. It took about 7-8 weeks to heal completely. That is quite a long time to have a big ole scab on your face right under your nose, which is where the mole was located. I initially wanted the thing removed because it looked like a booger in some pictures. And with the scab it looked like either a permabooger or a massive healing zit. Yuck!
And as the dermatologist warned, melatonin rose to the skin. Now this part is odd. The mole itself was almost flesh colored but the melatonin that rose to the surface is a light brown. So I now have a light brown freckle about 2 mm in diameter right under my nose.
I am still deciding what is preferable. The other one was not as noticeable because of color, but looked ugly because it was raised. This one is flat, but I haven’t yet figured out how to conceal it effectively. :-\
And now I’m also trying to decide what to do with the rest. I have a large mole on my chin but it is flesh colored and blends in when far away. But would a flat darker mole be preferable? It’d look like a freckle. Then I have two more smaller ones on the other side but they are going to grow.
At least through this experience I know the moles I want to remove have declined from 11 to 4. I've come to appreciate or at least not detest the itty bitty ones - they could be worse! But if I do remove the 3 remaining moles, I’m going to need to make arrangements to work from home or take vacation because that scab made me REALLY self conscious and 3 more at one time will really be icky!
Oh, to suffer under the burden of this vanity!
