Thanks Cheryl,

I hope I didn't give off the wrong impression about my mom. She is very caring and has always been wonderful, but she tends toward a mentality of "if I ignore it it will go away". She is the type that, when the tornado sirens are going off, will declare she is going upstairs to bed. I just don't think she wants to even consider that something like this may be going on.

That being said, I have scheduled a consult with a local oral surgeon. I've been talking to them off and on for the past week or so and while I don't have the money yet for the biopsy, I at least want to get things rolling ASAP. My appointment is Thursday morning, so I will probably pop on here and let you know how it went.

Thanks for the helpful advice!

Btw, my mom will be going with me to the consult.