By Becky Wiese
Sarah Jensen is a typical 34-year-old mom. She and her husband Josh live in Normal with their four children, who range in age from nine to one. Needless to say, her life is busy.
What’s not typical about Sarah is the fact that she had a complicated brain tumor that was in danger of impacting crucial body functions. Like breathing. “Dr. Nardone said that due to the size and the position of the tumor, even though it was benign, I probably had only three to four weeks to live before it would have literally squeezed my brain stem so much that major functions of my body would have stopped.” Diaper rash and colic sound pretty easy compared to that.
Looking back now, she believes some problems she had were actually signs that something was “off”—even as far back as when she and Josh were trying to get pregnant with their first child. “Getting pregnant was difficult, and once I was pregnant, I was incredibly tired all the time and didn’t want to move. There were some complications when I was pregnant with our second child, and even a miscarriage between our second and third children. When I was pregnant with our third child, I was just exhausted all the time — all my energy went to the baby.”
By this time, additional symptoms started showing up — slurred speech, being off balance, even horrible snoring. When their son was three months old, she was trying to cut a green pepper at her sister’s when her mother noticed her strange symptoms. She thought Sarah might have had a stroke related to being pregnant so recently. “My speech was off — I sounded drunk — my balance was off, my handwriting was awful — I could barely hold a pen…it was just bad,” she says.
When Sarah saw her nurse practitioner a few days later, she was not able to stand still without wobbling, nor could she close her eyes and touch her nose with her fingers. In addition, she was experiencing double vision. The nurse practitioner immediately sent her to a neurologist, who set up an MRI.
A week later, the MRI revealed a tumor almost the size of a mango on Sarah’s brain stem. She met with Dr. Emilio Nardone four days later, and had her first surgery four days after that to remove half of the tumor. This first surgery removed the portion of the tumor that was most crucial, as it was pushing her brain stem against her skull. Recovery was “hard — my body had to reboot because of the location of the tumor on my brain stem. I had to re-learn how to walk, feed myself, and talk. It took two and a half weeks of physical and occupational therapy to get my full function back.” Still, because they didn’t really know what to expect in terms of outcome, they were “thankful that [the tumor] was removed, and I was still alive.”
Six weeks later, the second surgery removed the remaining portion of the tumor, compressing nerves controlling eye movements and causing her double vision.
“Sarah’s tumor, although benign, was technically challenging because it was so large, and in an awkward position, right on her skull base,” says Dr. Nardone. “On a difficulty scale of one to ten, it was a ten.” Amazingly, Sarah didn’t lose any of her vision, even though Dr. Nardone had to remove parts of the tumor that were involved with the optic nerve.
Although Sarah still experiences some physical issues caused by the tumor (and the surgeries to remove it) — she still has some double vision problems, numbness on the left side of her face, and TMJ jaw problems — she’s happy that she’s had clean MRI scans since her surgery; and that chances are slim for a recurrence. She’s even had her fourth baby since the surgery — and this pregnancy was much easier relative to the first three.
When the tumor was first diagnosed, Sarah’s initial reaction was to go to Chicago for a second opinion; but after talking with a friend at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas (who coincidentally had been a resident at Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences, which is where Dr. Nardone is a partner), she and Josh decided their friend’s recommendation was all the second opinion they needed. Dr. Nardone himself had completed an intensive fellowship at M.D. Anderson in complex brain and spine tumors.
Dr. Nardone goes on to add, “Here in Bloomington-Normal, we have the expertise, facilities, and support staff to perform complex and challenging surgeries such as Sarah’s. This is very beneficial, especially in time-critical situations.”
Sarah would agree — and she’s happy to get back to being a busy mom of four.
Next month: Complex Tumors of the Spine.
Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences is located at 1015 S. Mercer Avenue in Bloomington. For more information or to schedule a consultation, you may contact them at 309-662-7500 or through their website, www.cinhs.com.
Photos courtesy of Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences