Good Morning: You have a Brain Tumor - Part I

It never fails. I get a text or a FB message weekly asking if I could speak to this person or that person because their friend or family member has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.   They attempt to articulate the what, how, when, where, and the inevitable how did you make it through questions.  I tell them the following story:

It was a typical January Friday night for me in Houston.   I picked up my laundry, ran to get a few items at the local Kroger.  So few items I just used the part where people place their children, ordered Super Nachos at the drive through and drove home.  By the time I got to my apartment door a 19 minute round trip I felt most ill.  I should have known something was seriously wrong with me after all, I could not finish eating my nachos.  I could not put my groceries up in the cabinets and my neatly folded laundry from the Laundromat remained in my unlocked car.  My headache was so intense, with each heart beat,  my brain would pound against my skull.

On Saturday I tried to self medicate with aspirin, tried to drink water thinking I was dehydrated. I could no longer take it.  I called my doctor and he said to go St Joseph's Hospital. I did.  Once I arrived in the ER I explained to the staff that I was allergic to penicillin, any form of it.  They like most staff rolled their eyes.  The ER doctor asked "...when was the last time you were given it" I said  when I was a child.  And  she rolled her eyes again.  She administered penicillin I began to loose my hearing, and I began to scream "I can not hear out of my left ear" all the while having a banging headache.    I second guessed myself for going to the hospital.  What a waste I remember thinking. 

I asked the ER doctor to check me for meningitis.  I explained to her that my Mom's friend had visited Vegas and caught meningitis and by the time they tested her it was too late - my mom's friend  died.  Again with the rolling eyes - and yet I was steadfast.  I wanted my the spinal tap.  She sais she was not an expert at it.   I replied in between  my head pounding "and...you're...an...ER...doctor...Lawd....help....us....all..".

She called the Neurosurgeon who was not at the hospital.  He was at home - he was "On Call".   He came into the hospital to perform the spinal tap.  He entered the ER, shook my hand, explained what a spinal tap was and gave me comforting words such as "...don't move because if you do I may paralyze you."   I couldn't even reply to him because he scared the crap out of me.  Removing the spinal fluid and diagnosing meningitis seemed as if it took FOREVER... he removed 3 vials of fluid, placed them in his breast coat pocket, patted them, and said he was going to take them to the lab.  He must have known something.  He was taking the vials himself to the lab.   Minutes later I was whisked to a semi private room, and soon thereafter I was giving some medicine and wheeled to an MRI.  The medicine they gave me was niiiiiccccceeeee.  I remember waking up the next morning.   The nice doctor was by my bedside.  He said, "Good Morning you have a brain tumor".  I was incoherent for about maybe 5 minutes.  It was as if my hearing was leaving me again.  And then I remember looking for a piece of paper and a pen to write down what he was saying.  I could not find a paper and pen for nothing nor could I find my purse,  I always carry a pen. 

He wrote down with his very nice Monte Blanc pen:  Meningioma Brain Tumor 3.5 cm x 5.1 on the left parietal of the brain.  There were no tears, I just wanted to leave.  After all he told me I had a brain tumor.  I really didn't want to hear anything else he had to say.   It was over.  I was going to die.  The banging headache stopped because he said I had viral Meningitis and they gave me  a 500 mg something for the pain.  He said there were no antibiotics for viral meningitis and he believes it was transmitted from the cart at the Kroger's.  NOW  you know why there are WIPES where the shopping carts are located. 

He said I would just have to "wait it out".  He explained I needed to drink PLENTY of water because the removal of spinal fluid would make my head ache even more than before. 

For the next 3 months: 

• I would drink a gallon of water each day, attend bible study once a week, attended Sunday church and came home and rested on my couch.  
• There were no tears
• I had to plan. My funeral, my 39th birthday party because I wasn't sure there would be a 40th and I had to begin calling family and friends.