Student bravely shares selfies after spot turns out to be an aggressive form of cancer that ATE away at her face
A STUDENT who thought she had a spot on her nose actually had an aggressive form of cancer that ate away at her face.
Marisha Dotson, 28, first noticed a small red pimple-like dot on her nose had doubled in size and was beginning to hurt three years ago.
Worried she went to see a GP and scans later revealed it was a squamous cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer.
Marisha, from Tennessee in the USA, needed a 15-hour surgery to remove layers of the cancerous tissue and most of her nose.
She was thought to be in the all clear as surgeons prepared to reconstruct her nose, but the cancer struck again and this time deadly spots appeared on her lip, cheek and nose.
After radiation and more surgery medics discovered the tumour had spread and Marisha required parts of her jaw, eight teeth, nose tissue and skin to be cut away.
Last year she had a temporary dental implant fitted to fill the void left in her face, allowing her to smile, eat and talk again.
She was told she was in the clear again three months ago.
Marisha, who is studying to be a counsellor, said: “Cancer took my nose and parts of my jaw, but not my body so I will keep on fighting.
“I earned these scars and should be proud of them as they area testament of my will to live, the blood, sweat and tears I shed to survive
“Early on, I made a decision that whatever pain I had to go through to live a little longer I would do and also I have a brother to take care of so I have to be around for him.”
Surgeons removed the bone is Marisha palette, eight teeth, her sinus cavity and some tissue from under her eye.
She added: “I have to use a dental implant now, without it I can't eat or talk because of all the missing bones in my face.
“The damage I have now I will live with for the rest of my life, I've given up on the cosmetic side of things and just feel so lucky to be alive.
“The odds of me surviving this form of cancer were very low as were the surgery success rates, I was given less than a 20 per cent chance of still being here today.
“But now I've had two tests to see if the cancer has come back and both are clear, which has given me hope so I'm very optimistic about the future.”
Marisha's symptoms began in 2014, shortly after suffering from pneumonia, shingles and colds, which she initially put down to overworking to pay for her education.
Then when an unusual spot-like bump developed on her nose started to ache she sought out medical help.
Marisha said: “I went to my student health service who said they hadn't seen anything like it and believed it was either a 'weird form of acne' or an infection.
“To me it looked like a regular pimple, it was slightly red and like a blemish, but after it continued to grow I knew it wasn't a spot.
“It started to hurt, continued to swell and I started coming down with fevers, leading me to get help from a dermatologist who officially diagnosed the cancer.”
During surgery to treat the cancer, it was discovered the tumour had spread deep into the tissue.
What is squamous cell carcinoma?
A squamous cell carcinoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer.
It is a non-melanoma skin cancer and is the second most common in the UK.
The most common cause is too much exposure to ultra-violet light from the sun or from sun beds.
Squamous cell carcinomas can occur on any part of your body, but are most common on areas that are exposed to the sun, such as your head and neck and the backs of your hands.
Squamous cell carcinomas can also crop up where the skin has been damaged by X-rays, and also on old scars, ulcers, burns and persistent chronic wounds.
They can be cured if they are caught early but if they are left untreated for too long they can spread to other parts of the body and become more serious.
Surgery to remove the tumour had to be done in stages, leaving Marisha with open wounds in between.
She said: “My tumour was like a jellyfish with cancerous tentacles reaching deep into my face.
“After a couple of hours into surgery my reality shifted, the tumour was much deeper than surgeons thought and it was very painful.
“Despite having 300 shots of anaesthetic to my face it still hurt as they continued to cut and burn each layer, so close to my nerves and sinuses.”
So much tissue and cartilage had to be removed during the surgery, that she was left without two-thirds of her nose until reconstruction surgery began, using skin from her forehead.
Marisha said: “I could feel there was a part of my face missing but when I looked in the mirror I was devastated, I had this huge hole where my nose used to be.
“Surgeons took skin from the crown of my head, shaved off a piece of hair and took the skin then flapped it over my nose and took cartilage from my ear.
“To keep the blood supply, they dragged the skin over my nose and it was left hanging off my forehead for a month.”
But after the reconstruction was complete more cancerous spots began appearing and Marisha needed more surgery.
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She said: “I went back into surgery to have them removed and came out looking like Frankenstein's monster, they had to take so much out on my nose, nostril and lip that I needed skin grafts.”
After more than 30 surgeries to remove all of the tumours, a reconstruction and fitting a temporary mouth piece to allow her to talk and eat, Marisha was finally cancer free.
She said: “Before I had gotten so used to bad results that I couldn't believe it when something good happened in September, I started crying and have even framed my pathology report.
"I still feel sad sometimes but I always remind myself of what I've overcome, I had the choice from surgeons to keep fighting or give up and die, but I chose to fight.”
Marisha has been left with hefty medical bills and is now crowdfunding to pay them off.
To donate visit her Go Fund Me page here.
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