Miraculous transformation: before and after surgery to remove a tumor on the face (11 photos + 1 video)
Category: Terrible (all news), Medicine
28 April 2024
A 62-year-old American lived for 16 years with a monstrous tumor on the right side of his face and neck. From “a small pimple near the ear” it gradually turned into a growth weighing 2.5 kg, which terribly interfered with normal life. However, medicine works wonders! 
Tim, a 62-year-old resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, had a 2.5 kg tumor growing on the right side of his face and neck. According to Tim, the tumor started out as "a little pimple near the ear" but continued to grow for 16 years, turning from a golf ball to a tennis ball. Eventually it became so large that it began to put pressure on my ear, jaw, neck and throat.
Because of its size, the tumor deformed Tim's face, pressing and stretching his ear, jaw, cheek and eye. He had a headache every day, and with certain movements he felt as if his face was “tearing.”
He could only eat with the left side of his mouth and was forced to eat while standing, otherwise the tumor would hit the table and bump into the food.
Tim was never able to have the tumor removed after all these years because he didn't have health insurance or money to pay for the surgery himself. But when head and neck surgeon Dr. Ryan Osborne contacted him, Tim was given hope that he could finally live a normal life.
On the latest episode of TLC's Take My Tumor, Tim said: “I hope Dr. Osborne can remove this monster completely. You have to believe in someone, and... I give Dr. Osborne the go-ahead to do his magic. At the end of the day, I just want to be normal, and I don’t often feel like that.”
Tim's tumor first appeared in 2007, when he was 46 years old. He decided it was a pimple and tried to pop it. But the tumor has not gone away. When it grew to the size of a pea, Tim asked someone else to try to remove it. But still nothing came of it.
One day he woke up and this thing was the size of a beach ball: "One day you look in the mirror and think, 'Oh, it's gotten bigger.'" When he turned to the Internet in search of answers, he said everything pointed to a sebaceous cyst, the most common type of skin cyst.
Tim was weighed several times, the weight of the tumor varied from 4 pounds (1.8 kg) to almost 6 pounds (2.7 kg)
This type of cyst is a non-painful lump under the skin that grows slowly. It is usually harmless and can appear on the face, neck, scalp, back or groin area.
These growths are quite common and occur in at least 20 percent of adults. They can form when the sebaceous gland, a microscopic gland associated with hair follicles that secretes an oily or waxy substance, is damaged or blocked.
Most of these cysts do not require treatment and should be left alone and kept clean. However, if the growth is causing discomfort, your doctor may remove it using local anesthesia.
Over the years, Tim has used humor as a defense mechanism and a "security blanket" to cope with his "friendly little tumor" and to make people feel less awkward around him and his growth. But the huge tumor still prevented him from living.
He has to lift the tumor up and over his shoulder to turn his head while driving, and the tumor interfered with him when he tried to maneuver under cars to service them. All his clothes stretched to fit the tumor, and he often did not get enough sleep, forced to lie on his left side, placing his right elbow under the tumor so that the weight would not press on his neck.
But with the help of Dr. Osborne, Tim had the opportunity to remove this terrible growth. So he flew to meet with a head and neck oncologist who is the director of the Osborne Head and Neck Institute in Los Angeles.
Although they had previously been video chatting, Dr Osborne said: "To really appreciate the size of this tumor you need to see it in person." After examining the mass, the doctor said he believed the tumor was coming from Tim's parotid gland, a gland that produces saliva. Tumors in this gland are not uncommon, but they are usually the size of a walnut. One as large as Tim's is unusual and looks more like a watermelon, Dr. Osborne said.
Although the surgeon did not object to removing the mass, he expressed concerns about interfering with the facial nerves passing through it - cutting the wrong nerve could lead to facial paralysis. In any case, Dr. Osborne would have to cut a large nerve that supplies senses to the right ear. The surgery may have left a large indentation on Tim's face. Additionally, the doctor told Tim that even if the surgery was successful, it could be six months before he regained full function and sensation in his face.
Although Tim was not thrilled that the surgery might leave him with slight facial deformities, he was determined that he wanted to get rid of the tumor.
The most alarming detail Dr. Osborne told Tim was the possibility that the lump could be cancerous. His intuition told him the tumor was benign, but because it had been growing for so long, there was a possibility that the cells could mutate and become malignant. Either way, the tumor had to be removed, and quickly, Dr. Osborne said.
Two days later, Dr. Osborne and his colleague, plastic surgeon Dr. Jason Hamilton, spent nearly five hours operating on Tim's face and neck.
During the surgery, Dr. Osborne was able to identify and bypass the major facial nerves. He removed the entire mass and Dr. Hamilton was able to restore Tim's cheek without any concavity.
Tim woke up and was able to smile and move his whole face.
A week later, Dr. Osborne told Tim that the pathology results showed that the tumor was completely benign, with no signs of cancer. It was a pleomorphic adenoma of the parotid gland.
Pleomorphic adenomas are the most common type of salivary gland tumor, accounting for 70-80 percent of benign salivary gland tumors and are particularly common in the parotid gland. Each year, these neoplasms range from two to 3.5 cases per 100,000 people.
Seven weeks after the operation, Tim went outside without fear of people staring or laughing at him, and was able to get a real shave for the first time in two decades.
“I feel lighter after the surgery,” he said. - Nothing hurts me. It turned out to be much easier than I expected... The feeling is fantastic. When the tumor was there, it was ugly as hell. It's good that she disappeared. Sixteen years was long enough. Everywhere I go, everyone is very happy for me.”
Now he can put on shirts normally, eat with his whole mouth, drive a car without raising the swelling to turn his head, and he does not have a headache in the morning. He can also work normally on clients' machines without being hampered by swelling.
He simply began a second life.
