The weekend after Thanksgiving 2007, my back was killing me. I figured that it might be a kidney infection with the holiday season approaching, finals at school, and a busy time at work. I bounced around to a couple different doctors before ending up in the hospital on December 15. During that time period, my left side became numb. After an MRI, the doctor said something that I least expected to hear, "You have a lesion on your brain".
On December 17, I underwent emergency surgery to remove a Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (brain tumor) from my cerebellum. The tumor had fingers that had spread into my brain stem.
With a lot of physical therapy, doctors visits, and family support - I can now drive again, walk again, and am working as a RN on the exact same neurology/orthopedic floor that I was once a patient on. I've come a long way, but there is still a ways to go...