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From the beginning 

Pencil and notepad

My whole life changed completely on Mother’s Day 2016, I was 17 years old and my mother and I decided to go to my sister’s house to celebrate the holiday, everything was going fine until my sister noticed my right nostril was slightly more raised then the left one. After she inspected it more closely and lifted my top lip up, she said it looked like a small abscess was on the upper part of my right gum. 
 

She then immediately suggested that I get it checked out by my GP and dentist as soon as I could.

 

IMPORTANT: make sure if a bump develops anywhere in your body (no matter how serious it is) you always go to the doctor to get it checked out; it is better to be safe then sorry.

 

 

Dentist: 

 I went to the dentist first and they realised that my left front tooth was moving at an unusual angle. I was already aware of this which was why I was going to go to the dentist the following week to see if I could get braces, but I didn’t take it too seriously, however, looking back now, I wonder if this was the first few signs of the  tumour starting to grow in my gum and I didn't even realise. 

 

My dentist started to feel around the bump by pressing, observing and poking at it which I didn’t think it was a big deal until she started to get her supervisor and her other dentist co-workers into the room. I was very scared and anxious at this point; they were speaking in hushed tones and asked me to have an X-ray. At this point having bone cancer was the furthest thought from my mind. I honestly thought they were overreacting (especially seeing as the x-ray came back all clear) But they did say they would still like to book me an appointment at the ‘Maxillofacial’ department at my local hospital just to make sure everything was 100% ok.

 

This did not calm my nerves though. 

Maxillofacial –

 adjective

ANATOMY

  1. relating to the jaws and face.

"maxillofacial surgery"

gum.jpg

This is not an actual photo of my gum but it gives you an idea of what it looked like. 

max.jpg

This is a photo of what a normal maxillofacial surgery looks like (this photo is not mine)

I also like to point out that during the early stages of this happening, I did not experience any pain or discomfort at all. I don’t know if this was because the bump was a size of a small pea at this point and wasn’t as noticeable (unless you looked hard). But I’ve noticed during my research of bone cancers (early diagnoses) people experience pain, discomfort, cramps etc. I had not experience this until I had a biopsy which is what I am going to address later. 

Doctor:

I then went to my doctor and told her about my bump which then resulted in some more tests to figure out why this was occurring. She asked me if it hurt when she pressed down on the bump and I replied no. She then guessed that it was an abscess and then gave me some antibiotics and told me if it didn’t go down in a few weeks I should come back to her.

After I left the doctors, I thought that was the end of all this confusion and I would just take the antibiotics and then my bump would go down again.

 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Abscess

 noun

  1. a swollen area within body tissue, containing an accumulation of pus.

Abscess.jpg

What a normal abscess looks like (photo found on google)

Hospital: 

I then went into the hospital where the main consultant did an examination of my gum until he decided that I needed to have a biopsy. My mom asked why I needed to have a biopsy, and he said it was to make sure there were no cancer cells involved. 

 

When I heard the word ‘cancer’ my heart immediately stopped, and I started to get anxious. He did assure me that even though they are making sure there are no cancer cells there, it does not necessarily mean that they would find anything (which did put my mind at ease) but I was still nervous about the prospect of it being cancer.

Biopsy

noun

  1. 1.

an examination of tissue removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause, or extent of a disease.

A few weeks after my consultation I had the biopsy, which was a very uncomfortable experience. I was awake during the whole procedure (which was roughly half an hour) but thankfully I had amazing people who kept me calm and did the procedure as painless as possible and after everything was done, I was then told that they were going to take the tiny bit of sample to the lab and see if there is/is not any cancer cells involved in the bump.

 

The Pain:

Screenshot_20180903_164954.jpg

If you look closely you will see my right cheek (towards my nose) look a bit puffy. This was the early stages of the tumour growing but because it's so hard to notice, I didn't take it too seriously. 

After I had the biopsy my bump started to grandly grow bigger and bigger until it  caused me a lot of pain. I was on more painkillers then I had been in my entire life and it was an horriffic experience. The only way I could describe the pain was it felt like something was pushing hard against my gum and my cheek and it left me feeling miserable and worried 247.

 

The doctors and my consultant were just as confused as I was; after all the blood tests, CT scans, X-rays and body scans I was in the all-clear and they couldn't find out what was wrong with me. This left me feeling confused, helpless and worried because if the hospital didn't know what was wrong . . . then what was I supposed to do in order to get better?

College:

During the time all of this was happening, I was at college trying to get my performing arts diploma. I had to do an extra year because I failed maths, but I was determined to work hard, get good grades and do my dream job I’ve been working my whole life towards.

Thankfully, I achieved that to the point of being the top of my class and a promising student. But when my cheek started to grow, and people were noticing I looked different, that was when I saw all my dreams and hard work going down the drain. I am thankful that whilst I had to go out of college to have hospital appointments and etc no one in my class asked me too many questions as to why my face looked different and no one made fun of me at all.

 

This meant a lot to me because in High School I was bullied over many stupid little things and so not getting that same treatment in college (especially something as serious as this) meant a lot to me.

 

I even had the confidence to do an audition, a play assessment and a presentation in front of the whole class (all when my face was still swollen) because I believed that my passion for the arts ran so deep and I was so passionate to achieve my goal, that I didn’t care (at that point) what I looked like.

 

But I wasn’t naïve. I knew that an actor greatest tool is their face and if my face hurt too much to make simple facial expressions. I knew that my acting career was most likely over.

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