I remember the day when we were coming home from Raleigh on a chilly afternoon. It was my mom, my brother, and me. The day was going pretty well, until I got another migraine. I get these things called ocular migraines. What happens is that I get a blind spot in my vision for usually about an hour, and then I get an excruciating headache for a couple more hours. It’s a living nightmare. I have been getting these headaches for about two years now. I eventually told my mother when we were almost home in the car. My mom was just fed up with these headaches, and she just wanted to take me to the doctor as soon as possible. When we arrived back at the house an hour later, my mom called the doctor, scheduling an appointment.
The day of the appointment finally came. I was feeling kind of weird about this day because I was nervous, first of all, and I was also kind of anxious to get this over and done with.
I woke up that morning stressed out. But I got ready and headed outside into the car. I was getting more nervous by the minute. The painful car ride was 30 minutes or so. My mom wasn’t really as nervous or stressed as I was, but she wasn’t happy about it either. My brother wasn’t in the mood to tag along with us because he thought that it was no big deal at first. So once we arrived at the doctor’s office, I hopped out of the car. I strolled inside with my mom by my side, ready to overcome whatever we had coming our way. She signed me in, and there we waited for about 15 minutes. “You nervous?” she kept on asking. I just shook my head, deceitfully. The doctor came out, and called my name.
I jumped up and walked over to the door, ready to go in. My mom was right behind me. Inside the doctor's office, we started talking, and he was asking me a bunch of a questions. He finally came to the conclusion that I should get an MRI. So he scheduled one. It was scheduled for a few days later; maybe a week.
Those next couple of days went by so slowly. The MRI was at Levine’s Children’s hospital in Charlotte, NC. Once we arrived there, we checked in and took a seat. Jonathan decided to come with us this time. We waited for about twenty to thirty minutes for the nurse to call me back. Once she did, they took some blood from me. It wasn’t too painful. I’m not really scared of needles, but they aren’t the greatest thing ever. After all that was finished, my brother and mom went back into the waiting room and sat down. The nurse took me back to the MRI room and laid me down on the table. The MRI lasted about an hour and a half.
Once it was done, we went back home. Weeks went by without any response from the doctor. Finally, they called us. We went back to the doctor to get an analysis of the x-ray of my brain. This time, we didn’t go to the first doctor I went to; instead, I went to a neurologist in Charlotte. This was right before one of my middle school basketball games. After we got there and went into his office or examination room, he walked in with the x-ray. He basically just told me that I had something in the middle of my head, and that I needed to get a spinal tap done to see if it was benign or malignant. He thought it was a tumor on my pineal gland. So he scheduled the spinal tap, which is when they stick a needle in my back, and take some fluid to see if it is cancerous or not, for a couple days later. My whole family and I were devastated.
The day of my spinal tap finally arrived. We went to the hospital, yet again, to get a needle in my back this time. They laid me down in a pre-op room before I went in. The anesthesiologist gave me two IVs and took me back. They gave me the anesthesia and did what they had to do. After all that was done, I went home, in pain. Weeks and weeks went by without a phone call. My mom was really getting irritated. She called them and the doctor admitted that he ordered the wrong test! I was supposed to get the spinal tap, but he ordered it the wrong thing for the fluid. My mom was fed up. She decided that we are going to Duke Hospital in Durham, NC.
I was relieved to hear that. After a week or so, we went to Durham to see what was going to go down. The neurologist there ordered me another MRI. I got that done after a couple of days after getting down there. The neurologist called us a day after the MRI for an appointment. At the office, he told me that I did indeed have a tumor on my pineal gland. But thankfully, it was benign. The worst part about it though, was that I was going to have to have surgery. The neurologist scheduled the surgery for about a month later.
The next few weeks were the worst. I wasn’t really nervous now. Mainly because the neurologist assured me numerous times that I would be okay. I was just anxious to get this out of the way. The day finally came. I woke up at four in the morning. My surgery was scheduled for I believe nine in the morning. We arrived at Duke at five. We checked into the neurosurgery department. After about ten minutes, they called me back. “I guess I have to do this”, I muttered to myself.
They took me to another pre-op room where I got four different IVs in my arms. The worst part was yet to come. The nurse came in, and said that it would be about another two hours before I could go back because they didn’t have the anesthesia ready. A lot of people came in to visit me and wish me good luck. I was going to need as much as I could get.
They finally rolled me into the operating room. I was sweating so much. The doctors flipped me over onto my back and rolled me over onto the operating table. They hooked up the anesthesia, and after about five seconds, I was out…
I don’t remember much when I woke up, but the one thing I do remember, is my mother crying. I was going to be okay.