I never really had to deal
with cancer throughout my life, I knew
nothing about it, the treatments, side effects or anything! So when your 19 years
of age, going to the doctor to what you think would be a ‘normal’ scan result,
turned into the worst day of my life. Cancer never even crossed my mind before
this, I mean, why would it?
So lets rewind to how it all
started. In the summer of 2017 (may/june) I started having seizures which would
happen at night usually before bed. These were blackout episodes of which my
body would shake uncontrollably and my eyes would roll in the back of my head.
After around 2 mins I would come back around and just feel very groggy for the
rest of the night. I visited the local GP a few times after this and they were
dismissed and was put down to being stressed form working in a busy
environment, not enough sleep etc.
Later in the summer of 2017 I started to have sever headaches.
Every. Single. Day. During this time I was still having the seizures. Back to
the GP I went so they started doing some investigating. All blood tests came back normal, urine tests and neurology exams. They dismissed this again however I knew that something wasn’t right. I went back multiple times and finally got referred for a CT scan on my
brain, I had to wait 4 months for this. The results then came through and the doctors put the seizures down to epilepsy so they put me on the
suitable medication to try to control the sezuires which none of these was
working. I tired around 11 different medications!!
I knew something was still not right with as nothing was working but I thought it was just a strange thing to unfortunately happen to me.
After a month or two, I visited the GP multiple times again and after a few months again they put me through for another CT scan.
On 10th may 2019 I was phoned by the doctors to say I needed to go in that afternoon to discuss the scan results. This is a day I will never ever forget.
Of course, I went to what I thought was the same as before, nothing wrong on the scan. But no, I was hit with the news that I had a grade 4 brain tumour! What??!
During this consultation, I had to process all of the information he gave to me, then start deciding on treatment options all within a 15 minute consultation. It wasn’t easy! So I was basically told that I had no choice but to go through chemotherapy as if I didn’t, it would just take over my brain and I would be brain dead within a year, we obviously didn’t want that to happen! Surgery was an option however it only had a 15% success rate as its attached to important cells in my brain and they would either have to leave most of the tumour there, or chop half my brain out, which, you guessed, wasn’t a good option either! Therefore the most logical decision was to start chemotherapy.
So I was basically told this news on the Thursday, and I started chemo on the Friday! Not really enough time to process it all never mind figure out how I was going to tell my loved ones the news I have just been told! I was totally unprepared of what I was going to go through, physically or mentally! The biggest challenge that anyone could go through during their lives, never mind a 19 year old girl!
I knew something was still not right with as nothing was working but I thought it was just a strange thing to unfortunately happen to me.
After a month or two, I visited the GP multiple times again and after a few months again they put me through for another CT scan.
On 10th may 2019 I was phoned by the doctors to say I needed to go in that afternoon to discuss the scan results. This is a day I will never ever forget.
Of course, I went to what I thought was the same as before, nothing wrong on the scan. But no, I was hit with the news that I had a grade 4 brain tumour! What??!
During this consultation, I had to process all of the information he gave to me, then start deciding on treatment options all within a 15 minute consultation. It wasn’t easy! So I was basically told that I had no choice but to go through chemotherapy as if I didn’t, it would just take over my brain and I would be brain dead within a year, we obviously didn’t want that to happen! Surgery was an option however it only had a 15% success rate as its attached to important cells in my brain and they would either have to leave most of the tumour there, or chop half my brain out, which, you guessed, wasn’t a good option either! Therefore the most logical decision was to start chemotherapy.
So I was basically told this news on the Thursday, and I started chemo on the Friday! Not really enough time to process it all never mind figure out how I was going to tell my loved ones the news I have just been told! I was totally unprepared of what I was going to go through, physically or mentally! The biggest challenge that anyone could go through during their lives, never mind a 19 year old girl!
Danielle x
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| Just 3 days after my diagnosis, trying to push it to the back of my mind. |
