A 20-year-old New Zealand mother who initially didn’t think much of a “pimple” on her face later learned that it was actually a rare form of cancer, Yahoo News Australia reports.
In June, Jorgia Robson, who has a 2-year-old son and now lives in Australia, noticed an inflamed spot on her face that wouldn’t stop swelling, her mother, Tricia Kirk, told the news site.
“One day, she woke up with a pimple just growing bigger and bigger,” she said.
Upon visiting a doctor, Robson was reportedly told that she had a blind pimple —or acne that developed under the surface of her skin — and was given antibiotics. Still, the “pimple” grew to the point where it was larger than the size of a quarter.
To make matters worse, the lump started to give Robson constant migraines, the 20-year-old told Kidspot.
“They wouldn’t stop, and I had trouble breathing, and my chest and arms began hurting all of a sudden,” she said.
Robson said that by the time the “pimple” had grown into the size of a sausage, a doctor ordered an ultrasound, which, in turn, revealed something far more serious.
“I got the scan, and they knew immediately that it was abnormal cells,” she recalled.
Robson was ultimately diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare type of cancer that can damage tissue or result in lesions in various parts of the body. Symptoms of the disease include flaking of the scalp, a raised rash in the groin area, abdomen, back or chest and bumps on the scalp, according to the National Cancer Institute. In Robson’s case, scans and bone biopsies showed that the cancer had caused a 3- to 4-centimeter hole in her skull. Read more
