52-year-old Michelle Davis pottedthe zit on her nose in April 2022
Pimples are quite common and affect nearly everyone at some time during their lives. It has no known cause, but hormonal changes and conditions, exposure to pollution, and dirt play a role in the formation of pimples. However, in the case of Michelle Davis, a seemingly harmless pimple on the nose turned out to be a sign of deadly cancer, New York Post reported.
52-year-old Michelle Davis, an account manager in New Zealand, spotted the zit on her nose in April 2022 and initially ignored it. ''I thought, ‘What am I doing getting a pimple at 52?'” she told SWNS. ''It will go away, I kept telling myself.''
She spent months using concealer to hide the bump in the hopes it would eventually disappear. However, in April 2023, Ms. Davis tried to squeeze it after the spot had become ''really sore'' and felt ''like a volcano under the skin''. When she tried the squeeze the pimple, as many people do, it started bleeding.
''Nothing happened,'' she said. ''Then it bled and bled.''
Sensing something was seriously wrong, she finally saw her doctor who diagnosed her with basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer that develops most often on areas of the skin exposed to the sun, as per the Mayo Clinic.
She then underwent nasal flap surgery to remove the cancerous cells from her nose.
''They cut up my nose in a zig-zag. They cut out a crater. There was a hole at the end of my nose,'' Ms Davis said. She explained that the doctors pulled skin from the unaffected portion of her nose to cover the incision.
The surgery left her with nostrils of different sizes, but she counts herself lucky that her entire nose was not removed. She now gets monitored monthly since she is more prone to developing skin cancer again. Through her story, she hopes that other people get encouraged to get unusual bumps and blemishes checked out by medical professionals.
She also added that sunblock has now become a major part of her daily routine.