A tumour took my face
I thought it had just been an abscess…
As I was touching the right-hand side of my mouth with my tongue, I could feel it – a small bump on the inside of my cheek.
‘I think it’s an abscess,’ my GP told me.
But it wasn’t painful and so I soon forgot all about it.
Then, last summer, I was running downstairs when I slipped and fell to the bottom and hit my face on the banister.
I went to A&E at James Cook University Hospital where an X-ray revealed that I’d cracked my left cheekbone.
But doctors were concerned about the bump in my mouth.
I had a biopsy and was sent home to wait for the results.
‘I’m sure it’s nothing,’ I told my mum Linda, 67.
But when the lump started to get bigger over the next few months, I began to panic. ‘What if it’s cancer!?’ I cried. The lump continued to grow until it was the size of a golf ball.
By now, it hurt and protruded out of my cheek.
Strangers would stare and snigger.
‘Take that out of your mouth,’ someone said.
‘I wouldn’t be seen dead out like that,’ another woman sneered. I was crushed. Soon the tumour was so big, doctors removed part of it.
Then, five long months after the biopsy, this January, I got my results.
‘It’s an ossifying fibroma,’ a consultant confirmed.
It was a benign bone lesion that’d caused a deformity in my cheek.
Doctors didn’t know what had caused it – but I was just glad that it wasn’t cancerous.
‘This type of tumour tends to regress in time,’ I was told.
It was a relief knowing I’d get my face back. But it just kept growing! Soon, it was the size of a tennis ball and I was in agony. I could barely speak or eat…
I’d need to have it removed completely.
So, this June, I had a 13-hour op.
It involved removing my jawbone and replacing it with part of my fibula, from my leg.
My teeth had to be removed and I’d need dentures fitted in future.
I also needed a skin graft to reconstruct my face.
And I had a tracheotomy to help me breathe.
When I came round after, I was relieved the tumour was finally gone.
But I had tracheotomy problems and was struggling to breathe.
I began turning blue and my organs started shutting down.
Nurses rushed to save me and, luckily, I pulled through.
Over the next few days, I began to recover.
My face looked completely different, though.
I’m a mess, I thought, and I broke down.
But I knew that I’d have to give it time to heal…
After nine days in hospital, I had the pipe removed from my trachea and was allowed home to recover.
However, I was in pain and needed help doing everything.
Because of the surgery on my leg, I couldn’t walk. So I needed crutches to help me get around.
And my face was so swollen and sore, I could only swallow soft food such as mashed potato.
Doctors have warned me that it may take a few years before I make a full recovery.
And I’m now waiting to have dentures fitted so I can finally smile again.
I’m housebound quite a lot of the time.
Mum does try and take me out in my wheelchair, but I just can’t stand all the awkward stares and sniggers I receive.
It’s certainly no life for a 24-year-old.
It feels like somebody has hit the pause button and I’m just waiting to start living again…
All I can do now is take one day at a time.
This tumour has stolen my face – but I refuse to let it blight my future.
It grew to the size of a tennis ball and I was in agony