A young woman who thought she had a tooth abscess ended up having to undergo emergency surgery to have her entire eye removed.
According to The Mirror, 22-year-old Ceri Jones was forced to have her face surgically reconstructed after doctors discovered that her “abscess” was actually an extremely rare form of flesh-eating cancer.
Jones knew she had to get help when she first felt a lump in her mouth, which she thought must be the beginning of a painful tooth abscess.
“It all started in October when I developed a lump in my mouth and started having bad headaches,” she told The Daily Post. “I went to the dentist because I thought the lump was an abscess.”
After having a few X-rays done, Jones was absolutely stunned to learn that she actually had an extremely rare form of flesh-eating cancer.
“They did X-rays and said there was nothing there so they sent me to Sunderland Royal Hospital where a biopsy was taken,” Jones said. “It was November last year when I was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and was referred to Liverpool Women’s Hospital.”
“I’d never heard of anything like it, I was so shocked that I actually had it to be honest,” she continued. “I had a 36-hour long operation in April to remove my left eye and have my upper jaw and facial structure around the left side replaced with titanium.”
“I was under sedation for two weeks while they did it and took skin and muscle from my right thigh to replace the left and side palate in my mouth, and they had to connect major arteries to blood vessels in my neck so the palate would keep alive,” she added.
Soon after discovering what was really wrong, Jones suffered a number of serious complications, though she miraculously pulled through.
Now Jones has flown to Florida from the UK to undergo innovative proton radiotherapy in hopes that doctors can stop the cancer from spreading to the rest of her body.
“I relive this nightmare every day from the day we took Ceri to Liverpool to the day she came home and the morning she went down to theatre for the longest life-changing surgery and the complications she had thereafter,” said Jones’ mom, Sarah Evans. “Seeing my daughter on life support was a horrific sight I will take to my grave.”
To date, Jones has had one eye removed and part of her jaw has been replaced with titanium metal, but she and her family are optimistic about the future.
“We are keeping everything crossed that the treatment will be effective,” said Evans. “I’m so proud of the bravery and strength Ceri has shown throughout all of this, she’s an inspiration.”
