I will survive

I will survive

Maria

On March 4 2013, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor/hydrocephalus. How in the world did I get this? 2 years after my 3rd child was born,life was normal until I started getting often dizzy spells,loss of hunger,blurry vision, and a mom at a bus stop said i might have vertigo,one because my hearing was getting worst then the dizziness. That was my self diagnosis. I went to a few doctors but all they did was a prescription for ear drops and a referral to my obgyn doctor. Nothing made sense since now my back was locking as I stood up from my obgyn exam ,I received a pastmear..that was funny because even the obgyn doctor couldn’t figure out why they sent me to her office. So life went on and again I lost my balance and felt to the ground but this time I knew it was more than just a ear infection.

On March 4th a Dr at kaiser permanente said that My MRI showed I had excess fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus) . On March 5th I received my first brajn surgery and there they said they had to do a biopsy to what appear that i had a brain tumor. The tumor is located on my brainstem so they couldn’t removed it. 5 days later I was released but this time I started hearing a water rushed noise in my ear and brain (annoying) my oncologist referred me to an eye dr because the surgery left me with vision problems (blurry and double vision) it is then that Dr.Crow realizes that I was still suffering from my hydrocephalus. No other that process that brain surgery wanted to accept it. On May 2013 I was asked to return to the hospital because now they needed to do another brain surgery to apply a VP shunt. After radiation and chemo treatments 3 years later I feel better but still get headaches, vision problem and fatigue but I can honestly say that finding a cure for brain tumor has saved my life. I get to see my 3 children grow.

Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.