The Only Way Out Is Through: Cancer Scare & Surgery With Eczema

In 2021, I faced one of the scariest challenges of my life. I had to have surgery to have the highest stage pre-cancerous cells removed from my body. Since then, I’ve been monitored every 3 months to make sure they don’t get out of control.

When did we discover the pre-cancerous lesion?

Early 2021, I had my regular gynecologist appointment. Prior to that, I noticed I had a strange lesion on my labia. So I decided to discuss it with him. When I saw him, he decided to do a skin biopsy. I nervously waited for the results for a few days, and unfortunately they came back with what they call VIN3 cells. This is the highest stage prior to turning into cancer.¹ I was immediately sent to an oncologist for an emergency evaluation.

What was it like seeing the oncologist?

When I got to the oncologist, walking around and seeing patients who were struggling with cancer was devastating. The fearful voice in my head kept screaming at me “What if I’m one of them soon?”

When I had my exam, the doctor suggested I have surgery as soon as she had a spot available. This turned out to be just a few weeks away. So soon, I thought. She stated it was necessary as we didn’t know if the cells had turned into cancer yet just from the biopsy, as the lesion covered a few inches of my skin. I’d only find our for sure after surgery, when the lesion was removed and thoroughly examined.

How did the surgery impact my skin?

Within 3 weeks, after having an appointment with my primary care physician to get cleared for surgery, and several blood tests, I went to the hospital with my mom for the outpatient procedure. That day, mid-March, a day I’ll likely never forget - I had a partial vulvectomy. This isn’t a very common surgery, especially for someone my age. I was terrified, to say the least. I had to be pumped full of medications and was put under with general anesthesia, and the recovery process was about 2 months.

Thankfully, the surgery went well. However, I had the worst TSW and eczema skin flare following that surgery than I’d had in a couple years. But now I had an additional battle on my hands - recovering from surgery, and waiting about ten days to find out whether or not I had cancer. Those had to be the longest ten days of my life.

How did the post-biopsy call go?

The day I got the call from the hospital, I was sitting on my donut pillow in a tremendous amount of pain. My face was red and flaring, my chin covered in weepy eczema wounds.

I picked up the phone with my shaky hands, and was immediately in tears when I heard, “It wasn’t cancer, we got it just in time,” on the other end. I was overflowing with gratitude. It would still be a journey to recover both from the surgery and my skin, but I didn't have cancer! That’s huge! You can imagine my excitement, I’m sure.

How am I doing now?

Fast forward to a few days ago - I had one of my gynecology appointments I’ve gotten used to every few months these days. To this day, every test I’ve done still showed high risk or malignant cells left over. But this time, when I got the results, there were NONE found. It has not even been two years since the surgery. I was blown away and found myself in tears again. I was filled with gratitude with this news and knowing my body is still healing.

It’s one thing dealing with eczema and skin issues, but a cancer scare on top of that was something else altogether. And now, at least for this moment - I’m in the clear, for the first time in years. It’s truly mind-blowing how many more complications eczema and other autoimmune conditions can cause. But it’s also remarkable how incredible our bodies are at healing.

Today, I’m in awe of it all.