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THE JOURNEY / 2014 WINTER
THE GIFT OF A
SECOND CHANCE Laine Isaacs
H
umor me for a moment, and think back to your senior year of high school. Were you working, planning your graduation, or getting ready for college? In May of 2005, at age 17, I was doing all those things. Then, my life took a very different turn. It all started in 2004, when I started having headaches for the first time in my life. Soon after, my peripheral vision became blurry and spotty. After a few weeks, it worsened enough that I couldn’t read or watch television, and driving was impossible. I saw many doctors for these symptoms, but none of them offered concrete answers. In April, I began throwing up repeatedly, sometimes up to 20 times a day. Finally, the last doctor I saw was so concerned he insisted I have an MRI scan immediately. The next morning, I met with a neurologist. I’ll never forget the way she unceremoniously glanced at the MRI images, then turned to me and said, “Don’t be scared, but you have a brain tumor.” The afternoon that followed was a bit of a blur, but I remember that my family and I drove directly
to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC, to see Dr. Thomas Ellis, a neurosurgeon my neurologist had recommended. He explained that the tumor could be especially devastating because it was located on my pituitary gland. My stomach sank as Dr. Ellis told me my condition could be chronic or fatal, but he couldn’t be sure until a biopsy had been done to determine what type of tumor I had, and how it could be treated. At that point, my high school graduation was eight days away, but I didn’t have the strength to walk across the stage to accept my diploma. As it turned out, my biopsy took place the day before the graduation and I was in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit of Baptist Hospital while my classmates accepted their diplomas. I was diagnosed with a germinoma, a cancerous brain tumor. My radiation oncologist, Dr. Kevin McMullen, determined I would need 28 sessions of radiation therapy to eliminate the tumor. Before treatment began, Dr. McMullen’s assistant told me what the consequences of radiation would be. He explained I would lose most of
