I had been healthy my whole life, never having to see a Dr for much of anything, other than the occasional cold or annual checkup. I started having headaches in 2004 and they weren’t getting better, so I went to my GP (General Practitioner) thinking maybe they were Migraines. He prescribed a medication for migraines, but it only worked for a while, a few months maybe. In the meantime, I went to my eye Dr for an annual exam, as I wear glasses and contacts and she noticed that one of tests that they perform during the exam, had shown significant loss of peripheral vision in my left eye and minor loss of peripheral in my right eye. She told me that something was not right and advised that I see an Ophthalmologist for further, more extensive vision testing. I knew that my vision had been off, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was going on, as I’d never experienced vision loss and just thought it was because I had been dealing with headaches and knew that Migraines could alter ones vision. We got the appointment set up with an Ophthalmologist and I went, in March of 2005. After the extensive testing, results come right away, so the Dr came in and went over the results with me and told me that I did in fact, show significant loss of peripheral vision and that in most cases like this, it’s a tumor of the brain and that I’d need to see a Neurologist. Not long after that appt, I saw the Neurologist and he wanted me to have an MRI done of my brain, so I had the MRI done and it showed that I had a tumor on my pituitary. The pituitary is a pea sized gland that sits at the base of your brain and is often referred to as the Master gland, as it controls most, if not all of the hormones in our bodies. I had no idea what this tiny little gland was capable of, until it didn’t work in my body anymore! I’ll get into that later! So after learning that I now had a brain tumor, the Neurologist said that I’d need to have it removed, as it was pushing up on my optic nerves, causing the vision loss and if it didn’t come out soon, it would cause more vision loss and possible blindness. I was scared and devastated as my whole world had just been turned upside down and I was now facing brain surgery. The Dr told me that I should gain most, if not all of my vision back after my surgery and that most, have easy recoveries from this type of surgery, so I was encouraged and hopeful! My surgery was scheduled for July 14, 2005 and I had my surgery that day. They made about a 4″ incision just above my forehead to the top of my right ear. I did have a very easy recovery and came home on a small amount of meds, that I was able to come off of and gained most of my vision back. We were all very encouraged and had the best Dr’s through all of it, we couldn’t have been more pleased! When I refer to “we”, I’m referring me and my Parents/family, as I wasn’t married yet at the time. Each and every one of them were there for me, every step of the way and very encouraging through it all! I made it through my 1st brain surgery and lived to tell about it! My store continues and I will keep writing everyday as much as I can, but this is just the beginning!