Late Childhood and Adolescence

When I was ten years old, I found out from my doctors that the cyst was actually in place of part of my brain. Previously, my parents and I had thought that the cyst was in my skull with my brain. It turned out to be replacing a portion of my right brain approximately the size of an orange. Most of the cyst is in the temporal lobe, with smaller parts in the occipital and frontal lobes.

For a while before and after finding out that part of my brain was missing I had vision problems and facial tics, similar to nervous tics or those experienced by a person with Tourette's syndrome. Both are thought to have been caused by the presence of the cyst and/or the absence of a part of my brain. A couple of years later, I began to have severe migraine-like headaches. The headaches were as painful and long-lasting as migraines, but without other migraine symptoms such as sensitivity to light and sound. I was given Propanolol which is generic for Inderal, a medication used to treat migraines and high blood pressure. I began taking it daily in January of 1998, and I have been taking it ever since. Since I began taking Propanolol, I have only had a few, short headaches and the dosage has never needed to be changed. The only cyst-related problems that I still have are difficulties with short-term memory, creative thinking (a right-brain function), lack of peripheral vision, and some hand-eye co-ordination problems such as slow response time.

Just by looking at me, it is hard to tell that I have a cyst. The only external indicators of my condition are the two scars from the surgeries and the spot where a hole was drilled in my skull. The two scars are each shaped like an upside-down 'U' and slightly overlap, forming a big 'M'. I get asked about it a lot and occasionally get funny looks, but it never bothers me. Some people have even thought that I got the M shaved in my head on purpose, but I always tell them how it really got there. The 'burr hole' where my head was drilled is barely noticeable. It is about the size and shape of the tip of a pencil eraser. There is no bone there, so sometimes it pulses with my heartbeat. It is also easy to feel it by running one's fingers (lightly) along my right temple. I have even encouraged some of my friends to touch it, especially those that did not believe that I was brain damaged.

Overall, I'm doing well for someone who has had two brain surgeries and is missing a piece of his brain. I am a straight-A student, won my county spelling bee in the seventh grade and placed fourth in the regional/state competition, am a member of my high school Scholastic Bowl team, have placed in regional academic competitions and gone to state, am currently a member of two school clubs: Astronomy and Webmasters Club, and am active in sports. My lack of co-ordination hampers my abilities in sports that involve a ball or puck, but I am a cross country runner and a sprinter in track and field.

Many times throughout my early childhood my parents were told that I might not live to be ten years old and that if I did live I would most likely be severely retarded. I sure showed them! My advice to those who read this; never let people tell you that you are not capable of doing something. You might surprise both them and yourself.

Notes:

¹ Vomiting that is sudden and forcefully projected to a distance.
² Subdural: Located beneath the Dura - a protective layer of tissue between the skull and the brain. Hematoma: A mass of clotted blood.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27