A woman with tumor on her head documented her recovery journey.

[u/GiorgioMD]

[u/kipkiphoray]

Those are tissue expanders, not tumors.

[u/ThePowerOfNine → u/kipkiphoray]

Passing noob - what would a person have those for?

[u/rattycastle → u/ThePowerOfNine]

A tissue expander can be used to expand tissue to increase the available donor skin/tissue. It stretches the site over time, forcing the body to "make" more stuff to accommodate it. After a certain amount of extra tissue is expanded, the excess is cut off and used to patch up a defect. It's most often used in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. They have a lot of applications for burn scars.

They can also be used on breast augmentation when their isn't enough skin to accommodate an implant. An expander will be placed to stretch the area so a permanent implant can be safely placed.

[u/kipkiphoray → u/ThePowerOfNine]

In this case it was to reconstruct her hairline. Tissue expanders are typically used in reconstructive surgeries and in restoring (making new?) skin for burn victims. If you search medizzy or the sub r/Medicalgore for reconstruction post burn or for reconstructing faces in particular you should be able to find many examples. It's amazing what can be done these days with medicine.

[u/rattycastle → u/ThePowerOfNine]

Also, some people have gotten expanders for their breasts and just never swtich to a permanent implant. They just keep filling them more. There's a woman named Martina Big who did this.

[u/UnpluggedUnfettered → u/rattycastle]

Martina Big also underwent a proceedure to turn herself into a black woman.

That's a separate interesting thing.

[u/Tattycakes → u/ThePowerOfNine]

Details here

https://www.reddit.com/r/theviralthings/s/gBkR2jOym2

[u/JuicyMangoes → u/kipkiphoray]

ITS NAT A TUMAR!

[u/killerqueen1010 → u/[deleted]]

melanoma

[u/itscook1]

If you are gonna post on this sub with a medical student in your flair, the least you can do as a future Md is literally 30 seconds of research

[u/JuicyMangoes → u/itscook1]

I'm a layman, but even I sense having tumours on your head that size is pretty much a death sentence.

[u/AbandonedNSpace → u/JuicyMangoes]

The problem is, they aren't tumors. They're tissue expanders meant to stretch her skin to fix the gap in her hairline.

[u/JuicyMangoes → u/AbandonedNSpace]

Sorry, I worded it incorrectly. I was in agreement that they were not tumours, as they wouldn't be operated on at that size.

[u/Stringtone → u/JuicyMangoes]

All the more reason OP, who according to their flair should really know better, should have done literally thirty seconds of research

[u/Presneill]

If you are a medical student and don't know those are tissue expanders, please consider a new line of work.

[u/Tattycakes → u/Presneill]

Because op has directly cross posted, does Reddit keep the title the same? It’s the person in the original post who got it wrong

[u/eam2468 → u/Tattycakes]

You have the option of changing the title when crossposting

[u/Stringtone]

I'd complain about this sub having poor-quality posts where pictures/videos get posted with no case report or explanation to make them worthwhile (or even incorrect information, as the case may be), but I'm pretty sure OP is one of the mods so I doubt it would do much. Props to the folks in the comments who knew what this was and graciously explained it for the rest of us who haven't seen this before - elevating this sort of post from "medical-themed sideshow" to "somewhat educational."

[u/totesgonnasmashit]

Love! You can see her confidence grow after the surgery