A week or so ago, I mentioned to my mother that I had a small, raised, red spot on my jawline that had been there for a weirdly long time – three months, maybe? It hadn’t really been bothering me, and I figured it was just a cut that was having a hard time healing, but of course my mother made me book an appointment at the dermatologist to have it checked out. I gave some good eye-rolls (who doesn’t love shelling out a co-pay for a prescription for bacitracin?) and called Dr. Avram.

Well, as it turns out, mom was right once again. Dr. Avram took one look at the spot and said he’d like to have it biopsied (that’s a post-biopsy shot, above). Never a fun feeling when your doctor looks concerned. It might be nothing, but it might also be a localized nonmelanoma skin cancer that needs to be frozen off. Worst-case, it could have affected a larger area and will need to be cut out (requiring some plastic surgery as well). I’m pretty iffy on the details of all this, so I’m popping on the internet now to do a little research. I’ll get my results in a week (and of course I’ll report back).

So I’ve had better news. I’m (perhaps naively) not too worried, but this is a nice wake-up call to get yourself checked out if you notice anything amiss – better safe than sorry – and, once again, a reminder that you should always listen to your mother.