A Facebook memories photo made me realize I had cancer

A woman is crediting Facebook memories with helping her fight a deadly disease.

Jennifer Pineirovigo, from Florida, said she noticed a small spot under her right eye and booked an appointment with a dermatologist. She later canceled her appointment when what she thought was just a blemish started to fade.

After seeing a 2020 picture from her Facebook memories, the 40-year-old mom noticed the same spot on her face and decided to get it checked out.

“Six months later, I had a memory pop up on my Facebook,” Pineirovigo said. “It was a photo I had posted about two years before, and the spot was very clear on my face.”

“It dawned on me that maybe it was something of a cause for concern, so I booked in for another appointment,” she continued.

In March 2022, Pineirovigo was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) — a type of skin cancer that most often develops on parts of the skin exposed to the sun, according to Mayo Clinic.

“It was crushing,” she shared.

She scheduled a surgery called Mohs surgery — a procedure used to treat skin cancer that involves cutting away thin layers of skin to look for signs of cancer.

Pineirovigo wasn’t put to sleep for the procedure, just had the area numbed with anesthetic, so she was able to see how the BCC had affected her skin.

“After they took the first three layers of skin, I started to get a bit worried as I could just see the damage it had left behind,” she shared. “The doctor even came in and told me that I would need plastic surgery in order to fix it.”

“They then removed another two layers, where they were certain that there was no more cancer. The whole process was incredibly gnarly,” she continued.

A plastic surgeon wrapped up the area and scheduled her for surgery to fix the hole in her face.

Her face took about two months to recover, but she needed to get another surgery to heal her scar when she realized she was allergic to the ointment she was using to help it fade.

But Pineirovigo wasn’t quite done with surgeries yet.

She noticed her smile line and skin beneath her eye was tight and she booked yet another surgery to fix the issue.

“I’m sad that I do have to contend with slight scarring on my face for the rest of my life now, but I’ll be forever grateful to the fact I listened to my gut and actually went to the dermatologist because if I hadn’t, I could be dead right now,” Pineirovigo said.

Her post-surgery experience hasn’t been the easiest.

“Having a new face to contend with has also brought across some challenges, but I love exploring how I can cover my scar with makeup,” she said.

Pineirovigo has now taken to TikTok to advise others to wear sunscreen on a regular basis.

“My biggest fault, and probably the cause for my skin cancer, was the fact I didn’t tend to wear sun cream if I was just running errands or going out and about for a few hours on hot days,” she admitted. “Since receiving my diagnosis, I’ve applied sun cream religiously, and I’ve made sure that my family do too.”