Quarter Life Crisis

Quarter Life Crisis

Elyse

In December of 2012, I made a trip to Richmond, VA to visit my dad and family for Christmas, I took my car and drove 10 hours from Buffalo NY to just outside Richmond. While I was visiting (and for a few months prior), I had moments of temporary blindness in my right eye, excruciating headaches, vomiting, balance and speech issues, and numbness in my right arm. Numerous trips to ER’s in Buffalo did nothing as they treated me as if I was a drug seeker and would just give me a migraine cocktail and send me on my way same for my family doctor. While visiting my dad (who is a Physicians Asst) we tried chiropractors, massage, medicine etc…to no avail. On December 28, 2012 after attempting to drive home (and realizing I would have crashed my car) and falling in the mall w/my step mom my dad called the ER he worked at and had me seen immediately.

They did a CAT Scan and found a tumor the size of a grapefruit in the left side of my brain. I was immediately admitted to the NeuroScience ICU where they placed me on high dose steroids and pain meds for a few days to get the swelling down enough to have a craniotomy. I had surgery on 1/4/13 and was released 1/8/13. On 2/26/13 I got a call from my doctor telling me that it was malignant and that radiation needed to start immediately. I did 7 weeks I-MERT radiation and finished 4/15/13. I have had MRI’s every few months since and so far so good, although I am having some new issues and am awaiting another MRI to be scheduled to check. Through my experience I’ve discovered that my calling is helping others get through similar experiences as I have had people from all over the country reach out to just talk about their experience. Most devastating thing though was finding out in Nov, 2013 that my uncle had been diagnosed w/Glioblastoma, he subsequently passed away on 2/24/14. We were brain cancer buddies, and I was lucky enough to be able to hold his hand when he passed. Hopefully through everyone’s continued efforts we will be able to discover better treatments and maybe on day a cure!!!

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