3 years ago in 2014, life was spent in the hospital every other week. I was having head aches, and my body was collapsing to the ground. The head aches started in October of 2013 and Lasted until May 2, 2014. The medical team in the Er prescribed me some powerful meds. They finally decided to go a head with the MRI that day. What they found shocked my mother and me. I knew that there was something wrong. But never in a million years I would have thought it was a Brain Tumor.
The type of Brain Tumor I had was subependymoma which is a benign tumor in the ventricles that grow from the ventricular wall into the spinal fluid spaces within the brain. These lesions may obstruct spinal fluid flow and/or put pressure on surrounding structures, causing symptoms including headaches and confusion. Researched from UPMC. I was in the hospital for 4 days they sent me home a day before the surgery.
May 6, 2014, I was in pre surgery prep when they drew my blood and tested me if I was pregnant and able to go through with the surgery. I had waited for the nurse to come in and was in conversations with my mother. The nurse came in and whisper to me that I was pregnant. I looked at her and told her it was okay that my mother knew. Dr. Mendez came in with his team and gave me some options.
- Keep both the baby and the tumor. Wait till the baby was delivered and go through Chemotherapy.
- Get rid of the baby and keep the tumor. Go through Chemotherapy.
- Keep the baby and get rid of the Tumor.
I choose to keep the baby and get rid of the tumor. At the time I was 2 1/2 weeks pregnant. The Drs were able to change the medications and proceeded with the surgery. The surgery itself took about 8 hours with me losing a lot of blood and almost flat lining. I was in the ICU for 3 days, and I barely knew what happened during the first two days. I do remember waking up wanting to throw up.
I was in the hospital till May 20th and sent home on bed rest for two weeks. Recovery wasn’t easy while being pregnant; especially when I really didn’t want to take medications to help with the pain. Even today I think I am still recovering from this surgery. I never have gotten a full scope on how long full recovery takes. But I am here and so is my two-year-old healthy baby boy Ethan.
My qoute: “If I can beat a Brain Tumor. What makes you think, I’m Going to let Life Beat Me? “- 2017
