Credit: SWNS / Jamie Powell
A woman says she'll "never French kiss again" after having half of her tongue removed and replaced with leg tissue after a cancer diagnosis.
Jamie Powell, 39, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in March 2020 after discovering a raised bump on her tongue.
After undergoing tests, Jamie was told she had stage three cancer and would need half of her tongue removed as well some of the lymph nodes in her neck.
She underwent the eight hour op in March 2020 and found herself having to learn how to talk and eat again - while coming to terms with her new tongue, which she says felt like a "foreign object".
A woman says she'll "never French kiss again" after having half of her tongue removed and replaced with leg tissue after a cancer diagnosis.
Jamie Powell, 39, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in March 2020 after discovering a raised bump on her tongue.
After undergoing tests, Jamie was told she had stage three cancer and would need half of her tongue removed as well some of the lymph nodes in her neck.
She underwent the eight hour op in March 2020 and found herself having to learn how to talk and eat again - while coming to terms with her new tongue, which she says felt like a "foreign object".
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This is what my tongue looked like.
00:08See how there's a square patch here and then there's that bump and that's what I initially
00:13felt.
00:14December 2019, I woke up one morning and I felt that bump in the back of my tongue and
00:18I thought I must have bit my tongue in my sleep.
00:21I was like oh it'll heal on its own just like when you bite your tongue or your cheek or
00:24something it heals rather quickly.
00:28This wasn't going away.
00:29In two weeks it wasn't going away and I was like red flag something's wrong.
00:36My dentist didn't think it was a big deal because I'm not a smoker I had no other risk
00:40factors and I had to get a second opinion from an ENT who did a biopsy and that's how
00:46they know for sure that it was tongue cancer and it was aggressive so you have to act quickly.
00:52If you have a bump or sore on your tongue that has not gone away in two weeks go get
00:56seen.
00:57It's just super terrifying to know that I won't sound the same and I'm going to have
01:03to relearn these things that we take for granted because I will be different coming out of
01:09this but it's not going to break me so I'm going to keep talking as much as I can.
01:15And I'm hoping that I'll be able to sound a bit better when I'm coughing like this so
01:25John's going to help me.
01:28Talking about how rare it is to be a mom and I realized I did it all while sitting
01:32in my chair.
01:33Three years ago today I had an appointment with the ENT about the bump on my tongue.
01:38Three years ago.
01:41This is what I sound like today after having to relearn how to speak, chew, and swallow
01:46food.
01:49I know I sound different than that girl in that first video.
01:52I know that I am completely different.
01:54Like the aura of light in that first video than how I am now.
01:59So different.
02:00I am here on the socials to help educate and help you know the signs so that if this ever
02:07happens to you, which I hope it doesn't, you'll know how to catch it early.
02:11Open your mouth up, go wide, check the size of your teeth, pull out your tongue with your
02:16fingers, see if there's any weird bumps or lumps, raised, white, red, anything that looks
02:21out of the ordinary, go get checked out.