Clay's Nose Job

Clay had a bit of a scare with a Basal cell Carcinoma on the tip of his nose. When he went to have it removed they found that it had spread to a wider area so they had to keep cutting away to get the cancer. This left him with a good sized hole in the tip of his nose.


To reconstruct skin over the hole, they took a flap of skin from his forehead to his eyebrow and bent it down and around to the tip of his nose. They kept it attached at the brow so the skin would continue to be nourished by blood vessels. Then they used the skin to replace what was missing on the ball of the nose and the nostril. They also used some cartilage from his ear, to re construct the nostril. It's pretty fascinating what they are able to do these days. Clay was a trooper through all of this, continuing to work around the house and willing to put up with people staring at him when he went outside (and a few jokes at his expense from Gene). Apparently the reconstructive surgery went well and the stitch lines are healing. Glad to have you back in one piece, Clay.



This last photo is my favorite. Check out the little fat globules on the inside of the skin. And yes, Clay agreed to have these photos posted.