The woman says plastic surgery saved her life (exclusively)

• Janine Avanti, an actress and bodybuilder, met a plastic surgeon for a facelift – and asked her to remove what she thought was a benign fibroid
• Dr. Kimberly Lee, who had been the main and neck surgeon before focusing on cosmetic surgery, looked at the tumor and thought it looked “suspicious”
• After Dr. Lee removed the tumor and it turned out to be a rare variant of cancer, she stopped in Avanti’s case and advocated for her care

Janine Avanti had always struggled with fiber Tumor.

The actress and bodybuilder from Lake Forest, California, was familiar with growth – she had had them earlier on her chest and during her scalp. But when a particularly ugly growth appeared on her neck, she sought medical care.

“When I went to the doctor to get this one looked at that they are, ‘oh, you have a history of fiber. If it really doesn’t bother you, let’s just leave it in peace. “And of course I wanted to believe it,” Avanti, 51, tells People.

At that time, Avanti filmed the thriller When death will beat And did not want to remove the lump because of the scar it would leave. But soon she could no longer ignore it, she says. “It was like the end of a thumb sticking out of my neck.

She continues: “It came to the point where it began to care, together with, obviously, turned 50. My appearance, to be in movies, be on stage as an amateur body builder … I thought,” Do you know what? ”

It was when she found Dr. Kimberly LeeAs had previously specialized in head and nack surgery before moving her focus to cosmetic surgery.

“She had all these awards in her office on the walls to be cancer head and neck surgeon,” reminds Avanti. “And I was like, wow, it’s impressive. Maybe I should ask her about this tumor. Maybe she can remove this fiber While we do this lower facelift jaw line and Neck lift surgery. ”

Dr. Lee asked if she had the lump watching and Avanti said it was “no big deal” and explained that it was just another fibrous tumor. Dr. Lee agreed to remove it and look closer. Surgery was planned for March 2024.

The entire operation was supposed to take three hours, but removing “fibroid” alone took three and a half hours, says Dr. Lee to People.

“When I saw the tumor, I didn’t like what it looked like, because it was matte, really stuck to everything around it,” she says. “When we have a benign tumor or a benign mass, these things come relatively easily.

As Avanti says: “This was like a chewed piece of dark bubble rubber. Avanti had also gradually developed a crooked smile – the result, says Dr. Lee people, about the tumor who invaded the nerves in the throat.

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“I knew this was already suspected of something malignant,” says Dr. Lee. She sent it to the lab for testing.

“I called Pathology daily and continued to hear: ‘Ooh, we have to do more studies on this.’ So I knew it was already a bit unusual, but then I got a call back and said that this was a very rare variant of a type of tumor. ”

The tumor was so invasive that Avanti says her face was “paralyzed” while recovering from its removal, but she says that Dr. Lee assured her. “She told me it was normal considering how deep we had to go (to get it out), but my movement would return.”

Dr. Lee says that for Avanti’s rare variant of her rare tumor, the operation is generally the first treatment line – but since she had been so thorough when it comes to removing the tumor, avanti did not need further surgery. But she says, “It was a bit spread in the nerve, (so) she needed some radiation therapy.”

Dr. Lee referred Avanti to an oncologist but stayed involved in his care. As Avanti says, Dr. Lee for me every day. “She explains,” there were many e -mail messages and many phone calls to get me in to see the correct oncologist I needed to see. ”

That’s because Dr. Lee believes in a deeper connection to her patients, she tells People. “The relationship between the surgeon and the patient does not end when the operation is over or after a couple of follow -up meetings,” explains Dr. Lee. “It’s really a band that extends throughout the healing process and then.”

With Avanti, she says, “I needed to get her to the best care with the principal and neck-on-ons, and because I am a head and neck surgeon, I know these people.

She continued: “I didn’t want her to get lost or fall through the cracks. I wanted to make sure she got all the care she needed and be okay.”

After all, she says, to feel safe in treatment can lead to better prognostic results. “When patients know that they have someone who is rooting for them in their corner, they just feel more confident and power to take on what is coming next.”

Now Avanti is about to recover and tells people, “I try to remind myself that I was healthy before cancer, before I was told that I had cancer, and I know I can be healthy after.”

And she credits her surgeon for everything. “Dr. Lee cared so much about me.

“I just feel like plastic surgery saved my life,” she tells people. “Dr. Lee saved my life.”