Survivor

Survivor

Lee

When I was a month or so away from my 25th birthday, I started to have slight strange visual symptoms. They got worse — double vision and being able to look up — also balance difficulties. After seeing several eye doctors, they sent me to a neuro-ophthamologist who sent me for an MRI with contrast which revealed walnut sized tumor in the pineal region of my brain. The first neuro surgeon I saw who gave us the news did not seem very hopeful. I consulted with three other surgeons who basically said that if the tumor was one of four types (3, including benign, would kill me), the prognosis was excellent but the chances of that were 50/50 at best. I underwent an 8 hour surgery and it turned out to be the type that was ‘good.’ It was a pediatric tumor that grew very slowly and usually shows up in early teens. I underwent 5 and 1/2 weeks of radiation therapy and I am here and well 21 years later.

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