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WHY DO I SHARE MY STORY?
Going through and experiencing seizures allowed me to realize how important it is to seize the day. Regardless of how uncertain, overwhelming and incredibly challenging these experiences could be mentally and physically, I made it my goal to have courage and bravery to not allow seizures to define me and to stay as optimistic and positive as I could to accept this situation and make it through. It is now my goal to share this experience with anyone going through, or knows someone going through epilepsy and seizures that although our situations can be different, there can still be help and resolutions. By donating to Vancouver General Hospital, we are assisting and providing their Epilepsy Program and Neurosurgerons with further ability to research more information and find further cures. Reagrdless of what you may be going through, please stay strong and remember to try your best to seize the day!
BIOPSY SURGERY
After having a Grand Mal Seizure on April 17th, 2023, My husband took me straight to the hospital. After getting examined and tested in the hospital for 4 days and getting multiple MRI's, CT, EEG and other tests, I was told and shown that I had a very large tumour on the top corner of the left side of my brain, right behind my left eye. After being put on medication right away, I had a Biopsy Surgery quickly after on May 5th, 2023 in order for the Neurosurgeons to understand more about the tumour and the causes of seizures.
CRANIOTOMY SURGERY
After my Biopsy Surgery, the main goal was to see if medication could cure or reduce the daily seizures before the Craniotomy Surgery. As medication was amazing and saved me from Grand Mal seizures, my tumour was so large that it still caused over swelling in my brain. Despite curing my Grand Mal seizures, having the tumour still resulted in Focal seizures. After 11 months of increasing my doses multiple times, my Focal seizures stayed consistent to 1-2 times a day on average and on March 27th, 2024, I had my life-changing Craniotomy (Tumour Removal) Surgery
AN MRI OF MY BRAIN TUMOUR
After multiple MRI exams throughout this experience, my tumour was very large and similar to the size of a tennis ball. As big as my tumour was, I was told it was most likely something I had for the majority of my life and it slowly grew to this size. Despite this size, it didn't affect me until I was 27 years old. Once discovered, the doctors stayed highly involved and on-top of my situation, they made sure they knew exactly what was causing my epilepsy and seizures and gave me the exams I needed frequently to be highly informed and analyze my situation thoroughly before my surgeries. Based on this photo, you can see how squished and swollen my brain was which evidently caused seizures. Because I was lucky enough to have the most amazing doctors and Neurosurgeons at Royal Columbian Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital, I went through 2 amazing surgeries and my tumour was removed.
WHERE AM I NOW?
Now, I am feeling fully recovered - seizure free, and still continuing to SEIZE THE DAY! Despite my experience and journey through this, I know that there are still so many others in BC experiencing or living with epilepsy and seizures, many are having to go through it every day. Because of this, I want to provide support to anyone going through this and share my story to spread information and awareness about epilepsy and seizures. Along with this, my goal is to contribute and encourage donation to VGH to assist them in furthering their incredible research, treatments and abilities in finding additional cures.
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