A woman battling cancer found herself in a bit of a hairy situation after part of her tongue had to be replaced with skin and muscle from her leg.
After being diagnosed with stage four squamous cell carcinoma — skin cancer of the tongue — Cameron Newsom, 42, underwent surgery where doctors used part of her leg to replace the part of her tongue that was lost to the disease.
“They usually take skin from your forearm, but I’m only five foot two, so I didn’t have enough skin on my forearm to replace what I was having removed. However, I’ve been an athlete all my life, and there was plenty for them to use from my thigh – so that’s what we decided to do,” Newsom, who was 33 at the time of the surgery, explained to Newsflare.
While the surgery is consider a success so far, Newsom admits that, “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!”
Side effects aside, Newsom is back to living her normal life as a gymnastics coach.
“2013 was the toughest year of my life and I couldn’t of done it without the support of my amazing Anthony and the rest of my family,” she said.