Strength

Strength

Danielle

After being a healthy, active teenager, everything changed in the blink of an eye. July of 2012, my parents decided to take me to the hospital. One week prior to the visit, I was experiencing arm and neck pains. The doctors insisted a Brain / Spinal MRI scan for me. The test results concluded that I had a solid mass measuring 4.9 x 4.4 cm in the axial extent filling the atrium of the right lateral ventricle.

I was immediately rushed into surgery. The surgery took place on July 16th, 2012, the day after my diagnosis. During the surgery, the surgeon informed my family that due to the size and location of the tumor, I would have three possible outcomes; I would either die during surgery, wake up brain dead and on life support, or remain paralyzed from the waist down. Approximately six hours later, the surgery was completed, and the tumor was immediately sent off for a biopsy. Thankfully, I made it out alive, and I did not have any of the outcomes listed above. The biopsy results came back as a Central Intraventricular Neurocytoma Brain Tumor.

This was good and bad news for my family and me. The bad news was that it was cancer, but the good news was that the cancer was treatable. The next day, I had my second MRI Scan, and it showed that there was approximately 10% of the tumor remaining. With that said, my second surgery took place on July 31st, 2012. I thank God everyday for watching over me and giving me the strength to beat this battle!

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