𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤

𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

This is the story about how I survived my brain tumor. I love sharing this story with people because it's the reason I'm where I am today, and I'm so thankful that God created such amazing people such as nurses and doctors that know how to save and heal people.

If y'all have questions or comments or anything about this, I am more than happy to talk to you about it! Most of this is just how I've heard it, because I don't remember a lot, as I was on a lot of medication at the time. 😅

This might be super long . . . but it's worth reading to the end. ❤️

(This paragraph is the most confusing to me since there are so many versions of this story.) On July 29, 2021, on a Thursday morning, I had a seizure (or something like it). My parents called 911 immediately, and almost instantly, the ambulance was there.

Okay, to backtrack, before this, my family and I were on a trip with my extensive family, and I was suffering from headaches and nausea. I threw up every time I ate, so I was starving for a little over a week and screaming and crying in my room. Yeah, I'm gonna say it, it was like hell.

Now, back to the original story. When I was at the hospital, I had an emergency surgery to put a drain in my head that drained all the harmful fluid in my brain that was causing the pressure in my head.

After a few days, I had a surgery to get the tumor OUT of my head. Apparently, it was the size of a small orange(?). I have a picture of the actual thing (which looks like fruit punch was spilled onto macaroni 🤢) and I have some golf balls that are the exact size of the tumor. But anyway, it was a successful surgery! I don't remember what happened after, but my mom said that I was crying and she was crying and it was just a lot of crying and pain, and that story itself makes me sad.

After the surgery, I stayed in the hospital for a few more days, and almost everyday my family (immediate and extensive) came to visit me. I was wheeled down to the lobby sometimes since it was the time of Covid and distant family wasn't allowed in the hospital room.

I still have a lot of things that I got in care packages, and I refuse to get rid of any of them because of how special they are to me. For example, I have a favorite plushie that I slept with every night. Her name is Luna, and she's named after my aunt's dog. This plushie is my comfort 'animal' since I can't have an actual comfort animal 😅

My room was full of posters from people from our church that I don't even know. One of them, who gave me most of the posters, is a good friend now.

When I left the hospital, some of my distant family members still stayed home to take care of me and my parents and my brothers, who felt left out the entire time. I still feel bad for them, even now, three years later. I did get a large Oreo cookie Blizzard from Dairy Queen every day from my grandpa, though 😂 I also had a large box of chocolate covered strawberries; I will never forget that. Ever. It was the most delicious thing ever.

But the reason I ate . . . a lot . . . was because I was on a lot of steroids and medications that gave me a big appetite. My parents and my brothers have shared a lot of hilarious stories from when I was on anesthesia or something like that. I'll share one at the bottom of this page!

(Three years later; now) I'm still recovering from the tumor, and I have a scar on my neck from my surgery and a scar on my head from the drain. The only thing I'm recovering from is my weird vision that was affected after my surgery. (My tumor was in my cerebellum, the back of my brain near the spinal cord, and part of my cerebellum was 'eaten' by the tumor, so now I have to retrain my brain to see properly. And use my hands properly. Mostly my left hand, though.)

I'm going to get eye surgery during winter break in 2024, so I'll have to celebrate Christmas with weird looking eyes :/ But it's worth it!

BONUS STORY
(Thanks for reading this far <3)

When I just arrived in the hospital, I was under light anesthesia. My parents(?) were with me, and I had my little stress ball thingy. (It was a green unicorn but we don't talk about that. I would post a picture, but sadly the unicorn died.) My mom says that I was saying, "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!" over and over again.

This story is literally so funny, and if you don't think it's funny then there's something wrong with you. /j 😂😂

Thanks for reading, lovelies! It means so so SO much that you care about this. This is a big part in my life that affected me by a long shot. This is also the reason I want to be a nurse.

Someday very soon, I plan on writing a letter to the hospital to say thank you in the most meaningful and sincere words I can, because I am so thankful that they saved my life that day. (UPDATE: I made the card! Go check it out :D The chapter is titled 'THANK YOU CARD'!)