Nicole Kowalski-Kleinsasser was just 25 when she started experiencing a nagging pain in her upper right jaw that interrupted her sleep.
This minor problem, which medics originally dismissed as a simple sinus infection, would eventually be revealed to a cancer which first claim her face and then her life.
Nicole, from Nevada in the US, first sought help from a dentists for the persistent pain back in 2017 thinking it was a simple toothache.
However, an examination revealed that the teeth in the area were perfectly healthy.
Doctors were also unable to determine the cause, and told Nicole the pain could from muscle strain, or a sinus infection a common winter ailment, but prescribed antibiotics did nothing to help.
It was only after she returned to the dentist for an X-ray that the true cause was eventually revealed to be a cancer silently growing in her face.
Tests eventually revealed she had salivary gland cancer, a rare form of disease that start in tissues that produces saliva in the mouth.
Only 720 patients are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year.
Nicole Kowalski-Kleinsasser was just 25 when she started experiencing a nagging pain in her upper right jaw that interrupted her sleep
She said the procedure to remove the mass, before tests confirmed it was cancer, had been akin to a ‘horror movie’ after drugs designed to numb the area failed.
‘I’ve never felt pain like that in my life. I could feel every single thing that he was doing,’ she recalled.
‘At this point I’m yelling with my mouth open, I’m bawling and crying and he’s not stopping.
‘I love horror movies and this is what I imagine being in a horror movie would be like.’
In total, the procedure would see surgeons remove a total of four of her teeth as well as part of the roof of her mouth.
While initial tests from a sample found the tumour was a benign growth, analysis once it had been removed confirmed it was cancer.
Nicole then faced 30 days of agonising radiotherapy, where her head was blasted with radiation, in a bid to kill any remaining traces of the cancer.
She described the sensation as like her skin was ‘burning’.
Nicole, from Nevada in the US, first sought help from a dentists for the persistent pain back in 2017 thinking it was a simple toothache
‘My burns were inside my mouth and I usually equate it to swallowing acid or glass,’ she said.
Eventually, Nicole required a prosthesis called an obturator to close the hole in her mouth left behind from the surgery to let her to speak, eat and drink.
However, this device, fitted together with wires and special fittings, was painful for Nicole to wear and needed constant maintenance.
As she recovered from the surgery she also noticed the teeth in her mouth had started to shift in place due to the restructure of her jaw, something she found incredibly distressing.
‘I lost my smile,’ she said.
‘I’ve had this smile all my life. And it’s just gone. It was a really devastating experience to have that happen, to have them shift like that.’
Medics originally believed this could be due to necrosis, the death of tissue in her mouth, as consequence of the surgery.
But tests revealed an even worse cause, it was the cancer returning.
After battling cancer twice Nicole was declared free of the disease and earned a master’s degree and then doctorate in psychology and met and married her husband Eric Kleinsasser
A second round of brutal cancer treatments saw Nicole another seven teeth and the entire roof of her mouth and relying on multiple obturators to perform basic tasks like eating, drinking and communicating.
However, she was declared cancer free and resumed a normal life.
Nicole earned a master’s degree and then doctorate in psychology and met and married her husband Eric Kleinsasser.
He said: ‘Nicole had this joy for everyday life that was contagious. It’s one of the first things I fell in love with.
‘She was fascinated by people and wanted to understand others, not judge them.’
In April 2022, two years after her last cancer scare, the disease returned for the third and final time.
Medics were forced remove part of the outside of her face, using skin grafts harvested from her leg to cover the damaged tissue.
Nicole said she found this incredibly difficult having only come to accept the way she had looked after losing so many of her teeth and the changes it had brought to her face.
In April 2022, two years after her last cancer scare, the disease returned for the third and final time. Medics were forced remove part of the outside of her face, using skin grafts harvested from her leg to cover the damaged tissue
Eric recalled: ‘It wasn’t just stressful, it was dehumanising.’
But he paid tribute to the courage and strength she had shown throughout, with Nicole sharing her story on TikTok as @nicolescrookedsmile.
‘She didn’t always feel strong,’ he said.
‘She’d say, “This doesn’t feel like courage. It just is.” But to me—to everyone—she was the embodiment of it.
‘Even when she was in unbearable pain, she was thinking about how to make others feel less alone.’
Nicole died in hospital on January 23 this year aged just 33.
Her mother, writing on Nicole’s Instagram, paid tribute to her daughter’s tenacity and capacity to hope.
‘Nicole did whatever she could to rid herself of such a hideous disease. She did not lose. She did not fail,’ she wrote.
Eric paid tribute to the courage and strength his wife had shown throughout her ordeal, describing her as ‘the embodiment’ of courage
‘She walked through every battle with grace and determination and through it all, she smiled, never asked for pity or blamed anyone for her illness.
‘Life will never be as bright as it was without that crooked smile.’
Eric added: ‘Nicole gave everything she had to this fight. Now it’s our turn to carry her voice.’
Symptoms of salivary gland cancer include a painless lump in your jaw, cheek, mouth neck, numbness in part of the face, drooping in the face and problems swallowing.
Many of these symptoms can also be caused by other non-cancerous conditions.
Salivary gland cancer is considered a rare form of the disease and most commonly strikes people in their 50s and 60s.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .