Survivor Story:

Devorah

My name is Devorah, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in late August of 2005, after a long period of pain. I would get up every morning and throw up. Then at about 10am, I would feel better and off I would go to work.

I kept telling my doctor that my head hurt and I pointed to the same spot every time. All he ever did was to give me pain killers. This went on for several months. Soon, I began having car accidents in which I started to hit parked cars and once, I even hit a car at a traffic light. I told my doctor and he decided that my only problem was that I was addicted to pain medication. At this time, I was working full time and going to school full time, as well as raising three very active teenagers. I thought I was going crazy. After a short while I developed a twitch in my right eye and a strange pain shooting down my right leg. My energy level was dropping fast.

I am thankful that one day I was sitting with a friend that was recovering from breast cancer. She was attending a survivor support group. Later, she said that the symptoms that I described to her were similar to the stories that she heard from people who had brain tumors. She encouraged me to go see her doctor, and she never told me that she suspected that I had a tumor... The first time I saw the new doctor; she sent me for an MRI and told me to see an eye doctor. The day after the MRI, she called me on the phone and told me I had a brain tumor. After the call, I was in shock. I was also angry that my old doctor let me think that my symptoms were all in my head. Well, I guess they really were in my head, surprisingly enough it was in the same spot that I was complaining about.

Thank God, they caught it before the tumor got too big. I had it removed in September. I am thankful it was only a maningioma. It could have been a lot worse, so I got lucky there. Once it was removed, my headaches stopped, instead it was new pain but that would go away in time, all the other symptoms went away as well. I did develop seizures after the surgery and also the tumor affected my thyroid which affected my cholesterol. It was up to 400 before I got my thyroid under control. Afterwards, it went down to 157.

I am finally back into life, school and work are back on track, my kids and my husband and the rest of my friends and family were great through all of this. I am so blessed to have them all. I never told my kids how serious the surgery was, but I wrote them all letters just in case. I cried all the way through each letter and then put them away. I told my husband to give the letters to them if I did not make it. I put his letter under their letters. I am glad that is behind me now. If there is one thing that I learned through all of this…it is to enjoy every minute because you never know how things are going to turn out. I never contemplated my own death like I did before my surgery. I am writing this story to tell people to trust their gut instinct and seek a second opinion..........