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A woman says she got a life-changing diagnosis after doctors dismissed her initial concerns about her health
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Jillian, a school teacher, said she was sent home after just nine minutes of speaking to medical professionals
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Now, she advises others, “You need to listen to yourself. If you think something is wrong, get it checked out.”
One woman trusted her instincts and received a life-changing diagnosis after doctors dismissed her initial doubts.
Speaking to Mamamia, the woman, Jillian, said she noticed a lump on her nose but her busy lifestyle, balancing family and a career as a teacher, prevented her from getting it checked out.
One day, Gillian told the media, a student told her, “You have funny red lines on your nose,” prompting her to make an appointment with her GP, who then referred her to a specialist.
Jillian told Mamma Mia that the medical professional advised her to stop using the decongestant spray and sent her off after just nine minutes.
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Doctor performing surgery (stock image).
According to Jillian, she didn’t always put her health first, so she didn’t think much of it at first. “I don’t usually listen to my body,” she admitted to Mamma Mia. “It tells me a lot of different things, so it’s hard to know.”
Still, despite the specialist’s dismissal, Jillian kept a close eye on her nose, and over time she said the red lines became brighter and eventually a bump appeared.
She eventually found another skin specialist, who performed a biopsy and then referred her to a general surgeon, who told Jillian that her medical predicament was “self-sufficient” and that she had “her own blood supply.”
Jillian subsequently underwent several more biopsies while saying she was unable to breathe through one nostril. “If you look at me, you can’t actually see the lump. But I feel it changing and it feels like there’s something crawling on my skin,” she told mommy Mia.
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Jillian eventually had a final biopsy, which determined she had skin cancer. It also found that the growth had hardened.
“Surgeons don’t know where the edges of the cancer are, and they try to be conservative and not perform unnecessary surgery,” Jillian explained to Mia. “So, in the first surgery, they just removed what looked cancerous to them.”
Jillian had to undergo multiple follow-up surgeries after her first surgery, admitting each one took a toll on her. “It was really devastating to hear after the first time, ‘No, this actually wasn’t enough, we need to do it again,'” she told mom Mia.
“When they brought the tissue box over before the doctor came to see me, I knew it wasn’t good news,” she added. “I’m kind of numb. It’s just, ‘No, we need to go back and do more.'” It’s hard to hear every time. The more they took away, the less myself I felt. I don’t know who I feel like. “
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A distraught woman in the hospital (stock image).
After having the growth removed and undergoing radiation therapy, Jillian underwent various plastic surgeries to reconstruct her face. “I didn’t even know plastic surgeons did that kind of thing. I thought they were all about boobs and [butts],” she joked to her mom, Mia.
Her last surgery took place in November. Jillian told the outlet, “It’s really good to feel more like yourself and more confident in yourself. It’s really, really important to feel a little bit more normal.”
Now, it could take up to 12 months for Jillian’s swelling to go down. She then had to undergo MRIs twice a year to make sure her skin cancer hadn’t returned.
Looking back on her own health journey, Jillian told Mamamia she had an important piece of advice to share with others: “You need to listen to yourself. If you think something is wrong, get it checked out.”
Read the original article on People
