A woman decided to have her foot amputated after living her entire adult life in excruciating pain.
Sierra Diller, 28, from Minnesota, made the decision 15 years after her foot problems began and after exhausting a number of different treatment options.
The marketing analyst suffers from a non-cancerous tumour - known as a hemangioma tumour - in her right foot.
Documenting her journey on TikTok, Sierra - who goes by @hopalong.sierra on the platform - explained how difficult the tumour is to remove.
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"Most people think a mass is just a big squishy thing," she explained.
"My tumour is kind of like stringy, long noodles that are intertwined with each other.
"Sitting in the bottom of my foot is a mass of veins, and every time my foot is not pressing on the floor flat, they fill with blood.
"It's really uncomfortable, going from sitting to immediately standing is very uncomfortable."
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Sierra explained that it's not possible to remove the tumour because it is so intertwined with other parts of her foot such as bones and tendons.
The 28-year-old's pain first began in 2006, when her school teacher noticed her limping and informed her parents.
She went to the doctor who discovered she had the tumour. A hemangioma is a non-cancerous tumour caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels.
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Despite trying a number of treatment options, including surgery and sclerotherapy injections, Sierra explained that nothing would remove the excruciating pain.
While Sierra accepted that this was simply her circumstance, she reached a turning point in when she had to drop out of grad school due to the disabling pain.
"Everything just kind of caught up all at once," she told People.
"I wasn't able to attend class and I ended up deciding to drop out."
After a further surgery in 2022 was unsuccessful, Sierra told doctors she wished they could just 'cut it off'.
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While medics initially thought she was joking, Sierra made it clear she wanted to go ahead with the surgery and after informing her family members, a date was set.
"They're all extremely supportive and proud of me for having gone through all this with the strength, courage, and tenacity that I've shown so far," she said. "Every friend or past coworker that I have ever met in my life has had to see what my foot has done to my life and they were all aware of how badly I had wanted my foot to just be cut off to be able to move on."
In December, Sierra underwent surgery to amputate her foot and has since been documenting her recovery.
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She asked friends and family to write goodbye messages on her foot and launched a fundraiser to help cover costs.
Following the surgery, Sierra explained she was in a lot of pain, but nothing compared to the pain she had prior to the amputation.
She explained: "Now I get to take my life back. I'm ready to live. Everyone I tell is just always so shocked, but I'm like, 'No, no, no!' They're looking at this as a sad, 'oh no, poor you' grievance kind of thing. It's not like that for me.
"It's like I'm moving on. I'm done with the sad stuff. I'm done being held back - no more!"
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@hopalong.sierra