Medullablastoma

If you didn't know; in November 28, 2012, I went to the ER for having extremely bad headaches. they were so bad that I would literally throw up whenever I got them or just stay on bed because I couldn't move. I was supposed to go to the school clinic for an appointment with the head doctor, but I felt waay to horrible to even stand. Thank God I had my good friend, Anna, taking me to my appointment anyways. I don't remember if I told her or if she forced me, but we ended up going to the ER straight away instead. 

It was kinda funny when I think back on my visit, cause Anna just took me straight to the ER, and I didn't have any time to change into proper clothes, or even get shoes! But it didn't matter anyways, I was put into a bed and then they decided to give me a CT Scan. That's a machine that they lay you down in and it scans your head, giving x-rays back to the doctors. I was fine in the scan. My headache was gone at this point, so I was just chilling, feeling like I was in an episode of House. They rolled me back to the ER and took their time reading their results. I didn't have time to grab my phone so at this point I had asked Anna to go get it, since I had my keys with me. Also to go get my a burger from McDonalds. I was starved. I hadn't breakfast since I was throwing up all freakin' day. 

The doctors came back while she was gone and told me the one thing I didn't want to hear. They said that they found a mass in my CT Scan, but to make sure it wasn't some defect of the equipment, they wanted me to get a MRI as well. Its the same thing but stronger at detecting things, I guess. I still don't know the difference til this day. Did the MRI, same thing. I still had the mass showing up. Basically, the doctors told me that I had a tumor. Now, I didn't have much reaction to this whole thing until now, but I knew that typically tumors meant cancer. At the time I didn't think cancer, cause I knew there were non-cancerous tumors out there, so I didn't panic. I just said, "OK", 

They admitted me in the hospital. I don't know why. Maybe they told me, maybe they didn't. Anna had to find me since I didn't have a phone to tell her that I had moved. I told her what they found and had my burger. She later left with another friend of mine that evening. My big in the Vietnamese association at school came to see me at night with some other of my friends, I was happy to see them. This whole thing was making a turn and I didn't know where it was going. At this point I had my phone again, so I could call my mother. I had called her with the phone of a admittance person to tell her the news, but this time was to tell her that they were admitting me into the hospital. She was hysteric. I feel bad for her. No one wants to hear that their child is in the hospital with a tumor. She was planning to come up and visit me the next day early in the morning. 

Since I was studying at Florida State, I was in the hospital in Tallahassee. I from Kissimmee, a town near Orlando. Its an four hour drive up from Kissimmee to Tallahassee. So, I wasn't expecting my mom any time soon. The next morning I had told my sorority friends of my situation. My line sisters, roommate, and another sorority sister came to see me once they were out of class. My mom made it just behind them, and good thing. I was told earlier that I were to have a surgery to get the tumor out, but I was to go to Gainesville (Gator country, eww!) in order to have the operation. My mom made it just in time before they sent me by ambulance to Gainesville, where she followed closely. 

I was checked into my room in the pediatric ICU. As I was not 21 yet, I still fell under pediatrics. Its dumb I know, but at least they're nicer. The next day I was to have my surgery. 

Now, everything gets confusing. I'm not gonna write about my experience there cause one, I don't really remember cause of the morphine, and two, I dreamt and saw some crazy shit. I don't know why I had these (I don't know what else to call it) illusions, but they were pretty damn vivid and tripped me out. My mother told me that I was in that hospital for two weeks. I only remember the last three days and the first day. The only things I can remember while being there were this: it was the year 2012. Obama was president, my sister's birthday was coming up on the fourth, my godmother came, my boyfriend(at the time) came, my dad was there for a while, my sister picked up my dog from Tallahassee, and I had three surgeries in my time there. One, to take out the tumor, one, to drain the spinal fluid and one to seal up the drainage to make a VP shunt, and that all my nurses, doctors, surgeons, were booing the fact that I'm a Seminole. That's it. Seems a lot, but my mom tells me otherwise. 

When I was conscience I didn't want to put too much info on what was happening to me. I have a lot of friends on Facebook that are really just acquaintances, or family members I don't really talk to, or just old high school friends that I really don't talk to. I mainly told my close friends and sorority sisters what was happening....to the best of my ability. While I was in my dazed state, I actually heard the doctor tell my mother that the surgery was success, however after they got the results of the tumor from the lab it turned out that my tumor had stage 1 cancer. A cancer called medullablastoma. A cancer that is typically found in children ages 3-8 years old. There is an one in one thousand chance for a person of my age (20 years old) to get this cancer. 

Well fuck.