For a month, doctors had been telling me that this odd pattern, three normal days and one filled with nausea and pain, was just an odd migraine that could be fixed with a small dose of Imitrex. On August first, the pain had become so unbearable that my mom rushed me to the local emergency room. After ten minutes of sitting in a swirling bubble of agony, a nurse took me down a hallway where I suddenly became disoriented and dizzy, nearly toppling over. I was guided with difficulty to a hospital bed where I was hooked up to an IV with pain medication, and for the first time in a month, I fell asleep pain-free. An MRI and a few hours later, I lay listening to my mom frantically call my dad at work. Not soon after, I was told that my "odd migraine" was a 5.7 centimeter tumor in my right cerebellum blocking the drainage of spinal fluid to my spine. I was transferred by ambulance to UCSF hospital that night. Doctors and nurses cycled through, my anxiety growing with each bit of new information, until the doctors decided to operate the next morning.
After my surgery, I had a long road to recovery on many different fronts. My first week back home, I was annoyed and frustrated because I couldn't do simple things like sit up or walk around or even shower. When I did start to walk around on my own, I had to use a walker because I couldn't balance properly, and people still had to be around me at all times. After many months of relying on tools and others, my physical mobility and balance eventually came back with help from a physical therapist. I returned to school after two weeks, but I had missed the important time of year that kids use to catch up on summer with their friends, as well as several activities that had help me expand horizons in the past. When it came to academics, I was extremely frustrated with myself because I couldn't keep up with other students and I had to drop three of my classes, and even then I still struggled.
(so yeah I can't really write rn)
