A woman has recalled the time she broke into tears after being confronted with a dire diagnosis.
32-year-old KayIa Mailer from Portland, Oregon, was just 12 when she developed an adorable spot on her left cheek.
For as long as 15 years, Kayla didn’t mind the ‘freckle’ that was dubbed cute by other people and compared to a tiny heart-shaped tattoo.
Everything changed, however, when the spot started transforming rapidly when the young lady was 27 years old.
“From at least sixth grade I had a mole on my cheek and right below it was a flat freckle. Over time that flat freckle became more and more prominent and by the time I was 26 it had formed into a heart shape and was super cute,” Kayla recalled.
“However, when I was 27 it had started to rapidly change and was no longer the perfect heart shape. It went from being a medium-dark chocolate brown to brown-black and the heart had lost some of its shape.
“I went to my doctor concerned and he sent me a referral to a dermatologist. The doctor checked it out and said it ‘definitely looked suspicious.’ I agreed to the scrape in case it turned out to be something more sinister, it changed quickly enough at the end to make me worried.”
Just days after undergoing a biopsy, Kayla received a shocking call from her dermatologist who told her that the news couldn’t wait for them to meet in person.
“He told me I had a ‘highly aggressive’ form of melanoma, that he’d scheduled me for the first available appointment at the surgery center in Seattle and that I’d need plastic surgery too. I sobbed when he told me,” Kayla added.
Following the grueling procedure, Kayla was left with a pepperoni-sized hole in her cheek. After her doctors made sure she was cancer-free, she also underwent plastic surgery that saw her cheek stitched up and the fissure in her face closed.
“I was prepped for surgery and the next thing I knew I woke up with a railroad of stitches in my face. Mom was napping on the side of the bed, a true angel, she never left my side even though she was exhausted,” the 32-year-old said.
Following the unexpected ordeal, Kayla spoke out to urge other people to get any suspicious spots and marks checked by a professional as soon as possible because early detection is key to successful treatment.
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