https://au.news.yahoo.com/womans-obsess ... 40271.htmlA university student has had to have her thumb amputated after developing a rare form of skin cancer caused by biting her nails.
Courtney Whithorn, now 20, developed the nervous habit after being bullied at school – and bit her thumb nail clean off in 2014.
Despite ‘freaking out’ when her thumb started to turn black, the embarrassed teen kept it hidden from friends and family for four years.
But the psychology student had caused such major trauma to her nail bed that it developed into a rare cancer – acral lentiginous subungual melanoma.
Since her shock diagnosis in July, Courtney has had to have four surgeries. Despite attempts to save her thumb, Courtney’s fourth surgery which took place last week saw the digit completely removed.
Courtney, who moved to the Gold Coast from England nine years ago said: “When I found out that biting my nail off was the cause of the cancer it shattered me.
“In my head I thought ‘I’ve done this to myself’ but obviously I knew I shouldn’t have that mentality. I couldn’t believe it.When you think about it how many kids bite their nails it’s crazy it came to that.”
Courtney explained how a consultation with medical professionals first went.
“I went to the doctors because my skin started turning black but I went for cosmetic reasons and my GP referred me to a plastic surgeon.
“I saw two plastic surgeons, and they were thinking to remove my nail bed to get rid of the black and then put a skin graft over it so at least it would be skin colour – I was happy with that.
“But before my first surgery to remove the nail bed, the doctors could tell something was wrong and decided to do a biopsy.
“I had to wait six weeks for the results. They were sent down to Sydney because they couldn’t tell if the biopsy was malignant or benign.
“The result came back uncertain so the surgeons wanted to be safe and remove the whole nail bed and any blackness.
“They did more tests and when those results came back, I was told that it was a malignant melanoma which was very rare to have there, especially for someone my age and at that size.”
After Courtney’s second surgery to remove her nail bed, she had a PET scan to produce a detailed 3D image of the inside of her thumb and no more cancerous cells were found.
Bizarre!! I hope being a psychology student she gets to the root cause of her obsessive nail biting.
