Father Scruffy

From the Pastor:    Father Scruffy

       Last week some of you were wondering why I looked a bit scruffy. It’s the second time since late March that I didn’t shave for a week and it isn’t usual for a priest (or at least this priest) to go around with a few days' stubble on his face even if it is sort of fashionable in some professions to do so. When I stopped shaving during Holy Week late in March it was because I had something growing quite quickly on my upper lip and the doctor sliced it off and sent it for a biopsy. I couldn’t shave until the wound healed enough that the razor wouldn’t damage the new skin that had to form. A week or two after Easter all was well. The biopsy, though, came back positive for cancer (basal cell carcinoma) so I was put on the schedule for a visit to a dermatologist to make sure there were no cancer cells left behind. It took a while to get an appointment but last week I went in for an exam and ended up getting Mohs surgery, something I had never heard of before. This is how it is described on the American Academy of Dermatology website: 

If you have Mohs surgery, you’ll see a doctor who is a trained Mohs surgeon. Most Mohs surgeons are dermatologists who have completed extensive training in Mohs surgery. During Mohs surgery, most patients remain awake and alert. This means Mohs can safely be performed in a medical office or surgical suite. Only if extensive surgery is necessary would you be admitted to a hospital. On the day of the surgery, your surgeon will first examine the area to be treated. You’ll then be prepped for surgery. This includes giving you an injection of anesthetic. This injection only numbs the area that will be operated on, so you’ll be awake during the surgery. Once the anesthetic takes effect, the surgery can begin. The surgeon starts by first cutting out the visible skin cancer. Next, the surgeon removes a thin layer of surrounding skin. You’re then bandaged so that you can wait comfortably. While you wait, the Mohs surgeon looks at the removed skin under a microscope. The surgeon is looking for cancer cells. If cancer cells are found, you’ll need another layer of skin removed. This process of removing a thin layer of skin and looking at it under a microscope continues until the surgeon no longer sees cancer cells. Once cancer cells are no longer seen, your surgeon will decide whether to treat your wound. Some wounds heal nicely without stitches. Others need stitches. To minimize the scar and help the area heal, some patients require a skin graft or other type of surgery.

       Fortunately, the dermatologist only had to cut one big glob of lip meat from my face and, after a microscopic examination, declared that the cancer had been completely removed. The growth had been very close to my nostril but the doctor was able to cut it out and stitch me up without cutting into my nose, something that had been mentioned as a possibility. Then he sent me home with wound care instructions that included not shaving near the stitches. So I could have shaved everything except for about a third of a mustache, but that would have been a bit silly-looking. I chose the unkempt look instead. 
       Along with the Mohs procedure, the doctor also took another chunk of flesh from over my left eyebrow. He said pretty confidently, “That’s cancer, too.” But it had to go out for a biopsy to be sure. The biopsy results have now come back. Positive. So I have yet another appointment set to get that spot cut further, as well. It may be another Mohs procedure or something else. I won’t know until the doctor examines it more closely.
       The stitches from the Mohs procedure came out this week. When I got to the clinic where they were going to remove the stitches, the poor medical aid was all flustered that he was working on a priest. I guess I am pretty intimidating to some people! He had a hard time determining whether the thing he was trying to remove was one of the stitches or one of my whiskers and he finally asked one of the dermatologists to come and assist. (My doctor was at a different clinic that day.) She removed the last three stitches and sent me on my way. Of course, I got more instructions as to how to treat the wound as it heals, including “don’t shave for a while, maybe two weeks or so.” So I will still be unshaven when you see me next. It’s been a couple of decades since I last had a beard and mustache but for some strange reason I don’t remember it being so gray back then. A problem with not shaving is that, just as the whiskers disguised the stitches, so they keep the doctor’s handiwork hidden. If I don’t shave, I won’t be able to see if he did a good job fixing his incision. If I do shave and the scar is nasty-looking, then I’ll have to start all over with the scruffiness if I want to cover it up with facial hair again. Decisions, decisions. At least I have a couple of weeks to think this through. In the meantime, you’ll have to get used to Fr. Scruffy!

With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka