Browsing: Brain Tumors
by Becca on December 26, 2019
Although I was born healthy, the normal-happy-kid-thing didn’t last long. At age eight, I started having trouble walking long distances and standing for prolonged periods of time. My legs would get all wobbly and the room would get swirly and I would just feel exhaustion sweep over me like a blanket covering me from head to toe. I would just want to lie down on my bed, curl up around my collection of teddy bears, and take a nap, and that was even before I developed a brain tumor.
Things had significantly deteriorated by the age of nine. By the age of ten things were so bad that I’d had my first hospitalization because it became physically impossible for me to hold down any food or drinks. I ended up with my first NJ tube and my first surgery. The diagnosis was gastroparesis. The rest of my childhood was spent … Find Out What Happens Next
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Tagged as: 24 hour urine collection, adrenal glands, Chronic illness, cortisol, cushing tumor, disease, dysautonomia, endocrinology, family, grandmother, invaldiation, malabsorption, neurosurgery, nursing home, pituitary tumor, Sick, spoonie, treatable diagnosis, tumors, validation
by Becca on December 19, 2019
Ever since I was ten years old I had carried a diagnosis of a chronic, incurable disease called gastroparesis. Really my issues started at age eight and become undeniable around age nine, but back then everyone wanted to blame my GI symptoms on things like stress, control issues, behavior problems or even eating disorders. At that point, there was no mention of any pituitary tumor.
At age 19, I found out that I also had a brain tumor growing on my pituitary gland. My kidney doctor, Dr. Green, had ran test after test on me, swearing she’d figure out what was wrong with me until on a whim she ran a 24-hour urine collection for cortisol and creatinine on me,
She didn’t expect to find much, as my blood levels of cortisol were normal, but she had exhausted all other options and knew something was wrong with me. Dr. Green … Find Out What Happens Next
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Tagged as: benign tumors, blood tests, brain tumor, Chronic illness, crappy veins, CT scan, difficult IV stick, endocrinology, gastroparesis, malignatt tumors, Mass Genertal hospital, MRI, neurosurgery, Port-a-cath, pre-op testing, Sick, spoonie, tumors, type 2 diabetes
by Becca on December 8, 2019
My Safety Net
My safety net was what my whole life manageable. My life was pretty much one big medical issue. Luckily I had two parents and two brothers to support me. My safety net was made up of two people, my mom, and my dad.
They didn’t always make the best decisions for me, in fact, sometimes their decisions messed things up for me really badly, but they loved me 100% unconditionally and always tried their hardest to make the best decisions for me.
It all started when I was eight and began dealing with muscle fatigue, then when I was ten I first got diagnosed with gastroparesis (a paralyzed stomach) and had to have emergency surgery to have 2.5 inches of dead bowel removed and then had to have an NJ tube placed.
My NJ Tube
An NJ tube is a tube that goes in through your nose … Find Out What Happens Next
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Tagged as: borderline personality disorder accusations, brain tumor, Chronic illness, cortisol, denial, family issues, gastroparesis, hospitals, Mass General Hospital, mother daughter bond, MRI, nausea meds, neurosurgery, pain meds, pituitary tumor, ptsd, Sick, spoonie, testing
by Becca on November 30, 2019
As the holiday season was going into full swing and most people were worried about what presents they were going to get for their boyfriends or parents, I was busy worrying about my upcoming neurosurgery. Being sick and needing surgery was nothing new for me, but I had never had my brain operated on before.
At the age of ten, I’d been diagnosed with a chronic, degenerative form of gastroparesis, and as I got older it became evident that there was something further wrong with me as well, but no one knew exactly what. We certainly never had the idea that I had a brain tumor and would need neurosurgery to have it removed.
I spent my entire childhood, from 2001 to 2010 going in and out of hospitals for heart issues, blood pressure issues, hypovolemic shock, electrolyte issues, passing out, and complications from gastroparesis. When my blood pressure issues … Find Out What Happens Next
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Tagged as: ACTH, adrenal glands, anesthesia, brain tumor, Chronic illness, conscious sedation, cortisol, dysautonomia, femoral artery central line, fluid and electrolyte issues, frienship, gastroparesis, high cortisol, inferior petrosal sinus sampling test, interventional radiology, invasive testing, monitored anesthesia care, neurosurgery, overproduction of cortisol, pain control, pituitarry tumor, Sick, spoonie, stress hormone, surgery
by Becca on November 20, 2019
When I woke up on the morning of December 13th, 2014, the first thing that I noticed was all the snow. It was coming down in snowballs, not flakes. The next thing I remembered was that I was making yet another trek down to Mass General Hospital that day. Dr. Swearingen, one of the top neurosurgeons in the country for pituitary tumors, was going to be meeting with me that day.
I had just been diagnosed with a pituitary brain tumor a month or two ago. My whole life I’d faced debilitating chronic illness in the form of gastroparesis, hypothyroid, anemia, SVT, POTS, A-fib, orthostatic hypotension, frequent episodes of hypovolemic shock, frequent episodes of passing out, muscle weakness, issues with electrolytes, and more recently, episodes of hypertension, bone loss, Type Two Diabetes, excruciating headaches, and fatigue.
My childhood had been swallowed by my chronic illnesses. Instead of going to school … Find Out What Happens Next
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Tagged as: Chronic illness, cushings, doctors, hospitals, neurosurgery, surgeries, surgery
by Becca on November 12, 2019
Worrying about Surgery and Anesthesia
On December 22nd, 2014, I found myself heading into uncharted territory as my mom and I climbed into our Blue Toyota Camry. We had to drive from our house in Springfield, MA to Mass General Hospital in Boston MA. Where they would be giving me a powerful amount of anesthesia and then putting a breathing tube down my throat in the OR to knock me out and remove a tumor.
That’s all that I could think of during the whole trip across the state, which took a little less than two hours.
I was about to have major neurosurgery to boot out a pesky tumor that had rented space inside my brain. This was going to be the most major surgery I’d ever had. At age ten my intestines had ruptured and I was raced into emergency surgery, but this scared me even worse.
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