Multilingual Farmington woman survives throat cancer, raises awareness of growing disease
FARMINGTON, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Learning new languages is Tessa Goldberg's passion.
"I'm relatively fluent in Afrikaans, English of course, Hebrew, a little bit of French, a little bit of Spanish and I practice a lot of other languages," said Goldberg.
Celebrating other cultures and communicating in their language has always been important for Goldberg.
"I love languages. When I watch foreign movies, I always make sure that I'm watching it in the language that it's supposed to be. Even sometimes I watch without subtitles," she said.
But in July 2020, Goldberg's life changed.
"A lump appeared on my neck. I didn't pay much attention to it. I'm not one to run to the doctor," she said.
Thankfully, she did. A CT scan and biopsy showed Goldberg had a serious stage of throat cancer.
"It's just so weird and so random. I am a breast cancer survivor, but it had nothing to do with the breast cancer," said Goldberg.
Dr. Farzan Siddiqui, Goldberg's doctor at Henry Ford Health, says globally in the last few years there's been an uptick of patients with head and neck cancer. It's now seen nationwide and in Metro Detroit.
"One of the reasons is an association of oropharyngeal or what we call base of tongue and tonsil cancers with HPV or human papillomavirus. Tessa's cancer was not related to HPV and interestingly she was a non-smoker, so the reason for her cancer was really a surprise to her and it was a surprise to us," said Siddiqui, Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Health.
Goldberg went through months of radiation. The last three weeks were the most challenging.
"I couldn't swallow and I couldn't talk by that stage. I landed up in the hospital a couple of times just because I wasn't eating. He said look, you have to start eating because if you don't eat, your organs are going to shut down. He said to me you need to start eating soft-boiled eggs, it's easy to swallow and I guess that's what saved my life really is to start eating those soft-boiled eggs. And to this day, I still eat those soft-boiled eggs every morning," said Goldberg.
The recovery wasn't easy, but Goldberg's determination gave her the willpower.
"Don't ever give up hope. There's always hope. It makes me stronger, I think," she said.
Full of gratitude, Goldberg is able to continue learning new languages and even her love for salsa dancing.
"I'm just so happy that I was able to get back to dancing. That's what keeps me going and my other languages and just my love for other people," said Goldberg.
Siddiqui says if you notice a lump that hasn't gone away in several weeks, a change in your voice, or any pain while swallowing, he says to see a doctor right away.