I missed the most important day of my life, so far. I missed Grade 8 graduation on June 28th. I had the prettiest dress picked out and I was so excited to say goodbye to grade 8 with all my friends. Instead the day before my Mom took me to the Emergency because I had a really bad headache that was making me nauseous and causing me to vomit. I know too much info. Dr. Sloan seen me and thought I had a concussion from playing basketball. After a CT scan in Red Deer, it turned out that I had a brain tumor. I thought those were the scariest words I would ever hear until I found out I had to have surgery.
June 30th was my first surgery. I was terrified to walk away from my mom and into the OR. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that brain surgery was dangerous. I was worried about not waking up, but I did and my Mom and Aunty were right there. After this surgery I had to learn how to walk and balance again and my eyes were all messed up, I had really bad double vision and short term memory loss is doozy. Since then I’ve had 3 more surgeries, one to diagnose the tumour, one to remove the tumour and one to help drain my cerebral spinal fluid or brain juice is what I like to call it. I’m still waiting to hear from my other doctors about Chemotherapy and radiation treatments which will be something new and not too exciting I’m sure.”
-Johnson/Hall Family, Olds