It was a manicure from hell.
when Grace Garcia When she decided to get a manicure in 2021, the mother of three had no idea the results would lead to a cancer diagnosis.
The San Gabriel, Calif., resident tried to book her usual salon for November 2021, but it was fully booked, so she decided to try a different one.
At a new location she visited near her workplace, the technician was “aggressive” when she paid attention to the cuticle on her right ring finger.
Garcia said her fingers looked “raw” after the manicure. Fox 11 It means “very painful”.
“It just looked like a blister,” said the 50-year-old man, pointing out that it wouldn’t heal.
“She probably used the tool on the previous person. I can’t think of anything,” she told Today.com“Whatever I had in my hand, it sprouted. … popped up. It looked like a wart and I was like, ‘What the hell is this?'”
Three months after applying the nail polish, the blistering pain near my nails did not go away. She then went to a doctor who sent her to a dermatologist for a biopsy on her finger.
“I knew it wasn’t good,” she said.
Almost immediately, she received an ominous phone call from a dermatologist.
“I got a call from him on my way to the car. It scared me,” she admitted. “He said I needed to come back.”
Garcia then went to UCLA Health to see specialist Dr. Theo Soleimani. The doctor said she has squamous cell carcinoma. She is at high risk, a type of skin cancer caused by her HPV (human papillomavirus infection), possibly due to nail polish.
He told the publication that he’d only seen a handful of them caused by manicure.
“High-risk squamous cell carcinoma rarely develops from this, but I’ve had half a dozen with this phenomenon,” he explained.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, workers must “clean and sanitize tools after each client in accordance with state cosmetics board policies.”
Garcia was officially diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, but thankfully she saw Dr. Soleymani early enough.
“Your outcome will be entirely determined by how quickly you catch them, and very often you will be completely cured,” he told Today. Not only that, but it probably saved my finger from being amputated.”
Luckily, Garcia didn’t need radiation or “additional treatment” thanks to his quick action.
“Anytime there’s a growth that doesn’t go away in about four weeks, it’s like a cue for us,” Soleimani said. “You should see a dermatologist.”
“I’ve been fighting since day one,” Garcia said.
