I recently had a small mole removed because it was a minor annoyance, occasionally catching on my clothes. It definitely was not a big deal, but I finally decided I would be better off without it, so my primary referred me to a well regarded plastic surgeon. The procedure took about 10 minutes, involved 3 sutures, and he told me to apply bacitracin when I changed the bandage. At the time I had no known allergies, but I have since learned the hard way that I am quite allergic to bacitracin! In reading up on it, I learned that a lot of people are, and the American Contact Dermatitis Association named it "Allergen of the Year" in 2003. They don't recommend it because it isn't really necessary and so many people react to it. It is frequently recommended for use post-tattoo and piercing, and that reminded me that when I got a tattoo many years ago, the worst part was the insane itching afterwards, which in hindsight was probably a reaction to bacitracin.
This has turned into a rather unpleasant ordeal and I've certainly been wishing that I had left well enough alone concerning my relatively inoffensive little mole! Since it's too late for that, I figured the next best thing would be to alert others and possibly help them to avoid a similar experience.
PS: Cortisone cream has helped somewhat, and this morning DH suggested trying Claritin which has worked wonders.
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Originally Posted by Yppej
