A mother of two who woke up with an electric shock-like pain on the right side of her face was shocked to discover a brain tumor.
Andreea Vanacker, of Montreal, Canada, said the feeling came on without warning one morning and would strike every time she started talking, laughing, or even eating.
Doctors said the pain was caused by a large benign tumor in her skull pressing on the nerve responsible for controlling facial muscles. They said its size suggested it had been growing undetected for at least 10 years.
Ms. Vanacker eventually had the tumor removed through surgery that required doctors to remove part of her skull and cut into her brain. They managed to remove the entire tumor, but she said it took her a year to regain her strength.
Andreea Vanacker, a mother of two from Montreal, Canada, has revealed how a pain that felt like electric shocks on the right side of her face led to her brain tumor diagnosis
The above scans of her head show her brain before surgery when the tumor was present and after surgery when it was removed. In a nine-hour operation, the doctors succeeded in excising the tumor completely
Ms. Vanacker, who is also CEO of management consultancy SPARKX5, took pride in her healthy lifestyle: avoiding alcohol, coffee, exercise, and getting at least seven hours of sleep a night.
So it came as a complete shock when she woke up one morning in July 2020 to feel a burning pain coursing down the right side of her face.
‘I had always been healthy and had never experienced anything like this; I knew this wasn’t good news,” she wrote for the Insider.
“I mainly experienced intense pain that felt like electric shocks on the right side of my face whenever I would move my facial muscles.”
She booked an online consultation for the next day — in-person appointments were difficult at the moment due to the Covid pandemic — and went to see a doctor who diagnosed her with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition that causes severe facial pain.
She was booked for a second appointment with a neurologist, but said the pain got so bad over the next few days that she even became afraid of her facial muscles twitching.
She also developed problems with her balance, she said, which made it difficult for her to move.
At her next appointment, doctors confirmed the diagnosis and said surgery was her only option to get rid of the tumor given its large size.
But they warned that the surgery was risky and, in severe cases, could leave patients struggling with paralysis or balance problems for the rest of their lives.
“I was speechless,” she said. ‘[Me and my husband] decided not to tell our children until we knew more about the risks of the surgery.’
She booked appointments with several other neurologists, all of whom gave the same recommendation.
For example, she showed an MRI that she had ten years ago to ask whether the tumor was already present at that time. They said it was but much smaller which probably led to it being missed.
The above shows the back of her head through which they did the surgery from day two to three weeks after surgery. The procedure involved removing part of her skull to access the tumor
Ms Vanacker said the diagnosis came as a total shock given her healthy lifestyle which includes avoiding alcohol, coffee, exercise and getting at least seven hours of sleep a night.
After a long search, she chose to have surgery by Montreal’s best neurologist, whom she met for the first time in September 2020.
She described feeling “terrified” as he described the surgery, which involved cutting out part of her skull and then passing through brain tissue to reach the tumor.
But on November 9, 2020 at 7 a.m., Ms. Vanacker went under the knife for a nine-hour surgery to remove the entire tumor.
When she came by the next day, her neurologist came to say that the surgery was successful and the tumor had been removed.
“How are you feeling, and can you smile at me?” he asked.
She said, “Despite the tremendous pain I was in, I was able to smile. I could not believe it.
“I learned that he had successfully removed the entirety of the brain tumor without any damage to my facial nerve, and I was in awe — and relief.”
She then described a long road to recovery with multiple doctor appointments and checkups with her neurosurgeon.
It took about two months for her to start weaning off her pain medications as the trigeminal nerve pain began to subside.
Five months after surgery, she was also allowed to do light exercise again, before spending a year building her strength. Her skull still felt painful until about 18 months after surgery.
“It was one of the most challenging times of my life, and my husband and kids got me through it,” she said.
“All I want to do is live my life with joy and bring joy to others.”
Ms. Vanacker has shared her story to raise awareness of brain tumors and warn others of the warning signs of their presence.
An estimated 700,000 Americans are living with a benign brain tumor, which is not cancer and does not spread to other organs.
But they can grow slowly, meaning symptoms appear slowly. Warning signs include headache, blurred vision, loss of sensation or movement in a limb, and balance problems.
Doctors normally opt for surgery to remove the tumors, but they may also use chemotherapy or radiation to kill the cells.
More than 19 in 20 patients with benign brain tumors survive more than five years after their diagnosis, data shows.
https://healthmedicinet.com/i/mother-who-woke-up-with-pain-on-one-side-of-her-face-told-she-had-brain-tumor/