Girl Says Plastic Surgical procedure Saved Her Life (Unique)

• Janine Avanti, an actress and bodybuilder, met with a plastic surgeon for a facelift — and requested her to take away what she thought was a benign fibroid
• Dr. Kimberly Lee, who had been a head and neck surgeon earlier than specializing in beauty surgical procedure, seemed on the tumor and thought it seemed “suspicious” 
• After Dr. Lee eliminated the tumor and it turned out to be a uncommon variant of most cancers, she stayed concerned in Avanti’s case, advocating for her care

Janine Avanti had all the time struggled with fibroid tumors.

The actress and bodybuilder from Lake Forest, Calif., was accustomed to the growths — she’d had them earlier than on her breast and underneath her scalp. However when one significantly unpleasant progress appeared on her neck, she sought medical consideration.

“After I went to the physician to have this one checked out they’re like, ‘Oh you could have a historical past of fibroids. If it is actually not bothering you, let’s simply go away it alone.’ And naturally, I needed to imagine that,” Avanti, 51, tells PEOPLE.

On the time, Avanti was filming the thriller When Dying Comes Knocking and didn’t need to take away the lump due to the scar it could go away. However quickly, she may now not ignore it, she says. “It was like the tip of a thumb protruding of my neck. I may conceal it with my hair. Different individuals did not discover it, however clearly, I felt it. I knew it was there.”

She continues: “It acquired to the purpose the place it was beginning to trouble me, together with, clearly, turning 50. My seems to be, being in motion pictures, being on stage as an novice bodybuilder… I believed, ‘ what? It is time for me to have a decrease facelift.’ ”

That’s when she discovered Dr. Kimberly Lee, who had beforehand specialised in head and neck surgical procedures earlier than shifting her focus to beauty surgical procedure. 

“She had all these awards in her workplace on the partitions for being a most cancers head and neck surgeon,” Avanti recollects. “And I used to be like, wow, that is spectacular. Possibly I ought to ask her about this tumor. Possibly she will be able to take away this fibroid whereas we’re doing this decrease facelift jawline and neck carry surgical procedure.”

Dr. Lee requested if she’d had the lump checked out and Avanti mentioned it was “no huge deal,” explaining that it was simply one other fibrous tumor. Dr. Lee agreed to take away it and take a better look. Surgical procedure was scheduled for March 2024.

The whole surgical procedure was presupposed to take three hours, however eradicating the “fibroid” alone took three and a half hours, Dr. Lee tells PEOPLE.

“After I noticed the tumor, I did not like the way in which it seemed, as a result of it was matted, actually caught to all the pieces round it,” she says. “When we now have a benign tumor or a benign mass, this stuff come out comparatively simply. Every part comes out in a single piece. This explicit mass was not like that. So I already knew that this was not good.”

As Avanti says, “This was like a chewed-up piece of darkish bubble gum. It was hooked up to all the pieces.” Avanti had additionally step by step developed a crooked smile — the end result, Dr. Lee tells PEOPLE, of the tumor invading the nerves in her neck.

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“I knew that this was already suspicious for one thing malignant,” Dr. Lee says. She despatched it to the lab for testing.

“I used to be calling pathology every day, and stored being advised, ’Ooh, we have to do extra research on this.’ So I knew it was a bit of bit uncommon already, however then I did obtain a name again saying that this was a really uncommon variant of a kind of tumor.”

The tumor was so invasive that Avanti says her face was “paralyzed” whereas she recovered from its elimination, however she says Dr. Lee reassured her. “She advised me it was regular contemplating how deep we needed to go [to get it out], however my motion would return.”

Dr. Lee says that for Avanti’s uncommon variant of her uncommon tumor, surgical procedure is mostly the primary line of therapy — however as a result of she had been so thorough in eradicating the tumor, Avanti did not want any additional surgical procedure. Nonetheless, she says, “There was a bit of little bit of unfold into the nerve, [so] she wanted some radiation therapy.”

Dr. Lee referred Avanti to an oncologist however stayed concerned in her care. As Avanti says, Dr. Lee “advocated for me each single day.” She explains, “It was a whole lot of emails and a whole lot of telephone calls to get me in to see the right oncologist that I wanted to see.”

That is as a result of Dr. Lee believes in a deeper connection together with her sufferers, she tells PEOPLE. “The connection between surgeon and the affected person does not finish when the surgical procedure is over or after a few follow-up appointments,” Dr. Lee explains. “It is actually a bond that extends all through the complete therapeutic course of and past.”

With Avanti, she says, “I wanted to get her to the most effective care with the top and neck oncologist, and since I’m a head and neck surgeon, I do know these individuals. So it was a whole lot of behind-the-scenes telephone calls making an attempt to get her in to see any individual as quickly as potential.”

She continued: “I did not need her to get misplaced or fall via the cracks. I needed to verify she was going to get all of the care she wanted and be okay.”

In spite of everything, she says, feeling safe about therapy can result in higher prognostic outcomes. “When sufferers know that they’ve any individual rooting for them of their nook, they only really feel extra assured and empowered to tackle what comes subsequent.”

Now Avanti is within the strategy of recovering, telling PEOPLE, “I do attempt to remind myself that I used to be wholesome earlier than most cancers, earlier than I used to be advised that I had most cancers, and I do know that I may be wholesome after.”

And she or he credit her surgeon for all of it. “Dr. Lee cared a lot about me. She made certain that I used to be doing properly via my therapy, that I recovered properly. She simply actually made certain that all the pieces that I used to be going via, that I used to be okay, bodily and mentally.”

“I simply really feel like cosmetic surgery saved my life,” she tells PEOPLE. “Dr. Lee saved my life.”