Modern medicine has come a long way, but there are still things that we just can’t cure.
We joke when it’s the Common Cold or the flu, but when it’s something like cancer or a degenerative disease, it’s no laughing matter.
Cancer in particular is a crapshoot.
There are various treatments, but none are guaranteed and most are absolutely miserable to go through.
Optimism makes such a big difference in recovery from any injury or illness, but when the cure sometimes feels as bad as the cause, it can be hard to stay positive.
But there are some cancers where even with all available treatment, you can only delay the inevitable.
Glioblastoma is a particularly bad form of brain cancer. So bad, in fact, that it’s often called “The Terminator.”
10-15% of brain cancers are glioblastomas and even with chemo, radiation, and surgery, the median survival time is only 15-16 months. In rare cases, people have lived for five years before passing.
So when a 22-year-old mom was told the bad news, it was devastating.
Tyra Livingstone from the UK, says that the first signs of something wrong came during her pregnancy.
At 31 weeks and feeling a bit sick to her stomach, Tyra tried to take a relaxing bath, but ended up having a seizure.
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The baby was fine, but after testing for pre-eclampsia and other possible reasons, an MRI was ordered.
Tyra had a 2 centimeter mass in her brain. Since she wasn’t getting any other neurological symptoms, the doctor said it was likely benign and it was safe to carry the baby to term.
Baby boy Preston was born a week early, but happy and healthy, so after his first month, Mom decided to leave him with Dad and go out with some friends.
The next morning, she woke up partially paralyzed and was persuaded to see her doctor.
While a second MRI had been performed after her delivery, no one had looked at the results yet. When her doctor got a hold of them, it showed that in the weeks between scans, the mass had grown a ton.
It was The Terminator.
“At that moment I died inside,” she said.
She had emergency brain surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, but though that removed most of the cancer cells, glioblastoma grows so rapidly that it’s impossible to get it all.
So Tyra has begun to plan for Preston’s future without her.
She’s begun writing him birthday cards to be opened as the years pass.
Tyra also has a collection of mementos for him, like locks of her hair and her radiotherapy mask.
“I need him to know his mummy fought desperately hard to be with him, that she loved him so, so much and didn’t choose to leave him.”
Though she knows there isn’t much time left, Tyra tries to stay positive for Preston’s sake.
“I remain positive and that’s the key in all this. When I was given a terminal cancer diagnosis the old me died on the spot, but the show must go on and this is a new chapter for me to make an unforgettable story until the end.
This might not be the life I had planned, but it is the one I’ve got.”
h/t: The Sun
