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I
know many of you have been praying for and thinking about me lately,
probably wondering what's going on with my health these days. This post
is long so thanks in advance for reading.
You may or may not know that for over 15 years, I've had a chronic headache that never goes away. For many years it was mostly tolerable and I was able to live a relatively normal life. However, in 2015 the pain suddenly became severe without any reason, and I began seeking help.
An MRI later in 2015 showed that I had two things: a pineal cyst, which is considered benign and (I was told) 99.9% of the time doesn't cause symptoms, and an aneurysm. The neurologist went inside my brain (cerebral angiogram) and discovered that there was no aneurysm, it was in fact just an oddly-shaped blood vessel. Everything looked normal to him and I was left with no idea where to go next.
In 2016 I reached my low point. I felt like this was my life, I was going to be in horrible pain every day forever. I was ready to give up on myself, but God wasn't. He, and my close family, gave me the strength to take each day one at a time to get to a better place.
From then until 2018, I lost 80 lbs, and I met with many doctors (19 as of today) and tried many treatments. Anything someone might suggest for headaches, I've tried. Counseling, prescription medication of many varieties, meditation, Chinese herbs, acupuncture, CBD oil, exercise, diet changes, books on pain; you name it, I've tried it. NOTHING has touched my pain.
I should also mention that my symptoms have grown just in the past six months. I can only drive short distances now as I have developed severe eye pain when moving my eyes back and forth or looking at even dim lights.
About a year ago, my mom was praying, and God spoke two words to her: pineal cyst. So she began to research on her own. What she found was astonishing: people with my exact set of symptoms, including vision & sleep disturbances, who all had one thing in common, which was (surprise) a pineal cyst. Turns out for the 0.01% of people who have symptoms, they are devastating.
The treatment for a pineal cyst is surgery. It is a highly successful surgery but is only performed by a small list of surgeons. Yesterday I saw a 3rd neurosurgeon. This man listened to what I had to say and (unlike the first two I saw) recognized that the surgery is the next step for me. I am completely confident in his skills as he has done this surgery many times, including as recently as this week and last.
So I am scheduled for surgery on April 3rd. I will be in the hospital for 2-3 days, then home for recovery. Some people take up to 2-6 months to fully recover. This is a big thing and I don't take it lightly, but I hope if you read this far, you can understand that this is the only option left for me if I want to have a chance at a normal life.
Thank you if you did read all of this and thank you in advance of the prayers I know will be prayed. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I may choose to answer in a private message if I don't want to discuss it here.
You may or may not know that for over 15 years, I've had a chronic headache that never goes away. For many years it was mostly tolerable and I was able to live a relatively normal life. However, in 2015 the pain suddenly became severe without any reason, and I began seeking help.
An MRI later in 2015 showed that I had two things: a pineal cyst, which is considered benign and (I was told) 99.9% of the time doesn't cause symptoms, and an aneurysm. The neurologist went inside my brain (cerebral angiogram) and discovered that there was no aneurysm, it was in fact just an oddly-shaped blood vessel. Everything looked normal to him and I was left with no idea where to go next.
In 2016 I reached my low point. I felt like this was my life, I was going to be in horrible pain every day forever. I was ready to give up on myself, but God wasn't. He, and my close family, gave me the strength to take each day one at a time to get to a better place.
From then until 2018, I lost 80 lbs, and I met with many doctors (19 as of today) and tried many treatments. Anything someone might suggest for headaches, I've tried. Counseling, prescription medication of many varieties, meditation, Chinese herbs, acupuncture, CBD oil, exercise, diet changes, books on pain; you name it, I've tried it. NOTHING has touched my pain.
I should also mention that my symptoms have grown just in the past six months. I can only drive short distances now as I have developed severe eye pain when moving my eyes back and forth or looking at even dim lights.
About a year ago, my mom was praying, and God spoke two words to her: pineal cyst. So she began to research on her own. What she found was astonishing: people with my exact set of symptoms, including vision & sleep disturbances, who all had one thing in common, which was (surprise) a pineal cyst. Turns out for the 0.01% of people who have symptoms, they are devastating.
The treatment for a pineal cyst is surgery. It is a highly successful surgery but is only performed by a small list of surgeons. Yesterday I saw a 3rd neurosurgeon. This man listened to what I had to say and (unlike the first two I saw) recognized that the surgery is the next step for me. I am completely confident in his skills as he has done this surgery many times, including as recently as this week and last.
So I am scheduled for surgery on April 3rd. I will be in the hospital for 2-3 days, then home for recovery. Some people take up to 2-6 months to fully recover. This is a big thing and I don't take it lightly, but I hope if you read this far, you can understand that this is the only option left for me if I want to have a chance at a normal life.
Thank you if you did read all of this and thank you in advance of the prayers I know will be prayed. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I may choose to answer in a private message if I don't want to discuss it here.
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