A woman who had half of her tongue replaced with a piece of her thigh in order to fight cancer recently noticed it started growing hair.
After Cameron Newsom, 42, received a diagnosis for stage four squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common form of skin cancer, doctors removed the left side of her tongue and replaced it with skin and muscle from her thigh, she told Newsflare.
Before her diagnosis in 2013, Newsom said she began noticing white spots on her tongue. After two negative biopsies, she said she began feeling excruciating pain in her tongue.
Eventually, a pink tumor formed on her tongue and she underwent a third biopsy. That's when doctors discovered she had cancer. Newsom, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, told Newsflare she did not receive a diagnosis until three years after the initial spot appeared.
She explained that she lost over seven pounds at the time of her diagnosis because she wasn't able to eat or drink.
"It took three years from when the first spot originally appeared for doctors to finally diagnose me—no one ever mentioned it could be oral cancer," she said. "Straight away my reaction was, I'm ready to fight this."
She said she was only 33-years-old at the time of her diagnosis and was in great shape, so she was confused about how this could happen to her.
"When I got home that day I googled my type of cancer and as you can imagine the results were absolutely terrifying," she told Newsflare. "There were images of people after having their jaws removed or sawed in half—I'd never been so scared."
Squamous cell carcinoma is a form of skin cancer that is characterized by accelerated growth of the squamous cells commonly found in the mouth, throat or lungs. The Skin Cancer Foundation estimated more than 15,000 Americans die from this form of cancer each year.
Experts recommend avoiding unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation by wearing sunscreen, avoiding tanning beds and staying in the shade.
After Newsom's diagnosis, she underwent three rounds of chemotherapy before the tumor was completely removed and replaced with the piece of her thigh.
After the more than nine-hour-long surgery, Newsom underwent 45 rounds of radiation and three additional rounds of chemotherapy, Newsflare reported.
Nine years later, Newsom said she has had no signs of regression, although half of her tongue is always numb and she can only taste with the right side. She also said the left side of her tongue is connected to her gums which makes it take longer for her to eat. But she said that's not the strangest part about her new tongue.
"The weirdest part of the whole experience was when I felt a rough texture on the thigh part of my tongue—and when I looked in the mirror it had started growing leg hair!" Newsom said.
Newsom commonly tells viewers about her situation on her TikTok account, @camiflauge, and explained that she didn't have much say over the matter. She said that doctors recommended she undergo the procedure in order to live a "normal" life.
She explained that normally doctors use a piece of the forearm for the procedure, but since she was only 5-foot-2 there wasn't enough skin available to remove.
In other videos on her TikTok page, Newsom shows off the scar on her thigh as well as what her tongue looks like now.
Newsweek reached out to Cameron Newsom for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Samantha Berlin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on trends and human-interest stories. Samantha ... Read more
