Skin Cancer Awareness: Beware of “Basal”

May was Skin Cancer Awareness Month. Here’s what I have to say about that.

Sometime last year, in the 2020 blur, I realized I had a spot on my scalp, right on my part line, that was red and raised. I picked at it out of habit, which made it scab over, so I picked at it more, and so on. Sometimes I would hardly even notice when I was doing it, but my partner did. He encouraged me to get it checked out, but I put it off, thinking it was probably nothing, that if I just stopped picking at it, it would go away. But of course I didn’t stop, and when my partner emphasized again that I should get it checked out, that it’s simple to do so, I finally listened and put “dermo appt” on my list of things to do.

I first saw my primary care physician about it, strategically parting my hair and awkwardly moving my head around to get the spot in front of computer’s camera so that she could see the culprit in Zoom space. She referred me to a dermatologist, fueled not only because of the difficulty of seeing the spot over cyberspace but also because I have a family history of skin cancer. I made the appointment, went in, showed the spot, and because it was covered by a scab, the dermatologist needed to take a biopsy to see what was going on. She did, and a little over a week later, I got the call with the results. I had basal cell carcinoma. My heart sunk.