How I survived my ‘monster’ tumour
AMUM-OF-THREE has told how a bump on her head turned out to be a potentially deadly brain tumour – which she nicknamed “the monster”.
Kim Oldfield, who works at a secondary school in West Lancashire, started suffering from headaches after she returned from a family skiing holiday last year.
She injured her knee while skiing in France and did not link the headaches to the accident.
She put the headaches down to stress, and took paracetamol.
But the headaches would not go away, and she became very ill during a summer holiday to Port Grimaud in the South of France.
Kim was still suffering when she returned home, and took up a new exercise plan to try to reduce her stress and improve her fitness.
But she then began to notice a bump on the side of her head.
Then, on her birthday in September, she was rushed to Aintree hospital with very high blood pressure.
Tests revealed that she had a brain tumour, and the bump on her head had been caused from the pressure of the tumour.
She later underwent a four-hour craniectomy – a procedure which removes a small section of the skull – at the Walton Centre, to remove the tumour she had nicknamed “the monster”.
Kim then had to wait eight weeks for the biopsy results to come back on her tumour and doctors told her the tumour was benign, just three days before Christmas.
She said: “I hurt my knee badly while skiing in France last January. I dislocated my knee and they had to put it in a brace.
“I remember the headaches started when we got back home, and I just thought it was a bit of stress. I just took over-the- counter medication for the pain, but it would not go away.
“Then we went to the South of France in the summer. It was absolutely beautiful, but I still felt really poorly.
“When we got back home, my daughters and I took up this healthy lifestyle, walking and drinking plenty of water.
“A friend of mine who suffers from cancer recommended a local spring water called Angel Revive. I started drinking a couple of bottles a day.
“They have supplied the water to other people across the area who have suffered from cancer too, and they deserve some credit for that.
“I remember in the summer I started to notice a bump on the side of my head, which I did not think too much of at the time.
“I was still just taking paracetamol, but the headaches were getting worse.
“Things came to a head on my birthday, when my blood pressure went through the roof.
“I was rushed into Aintree, where I had an MRI.
“I remember when they told me I had a tumour – my daughters were with me – it was such a horrible day.
“I then started to call the tumour ‘the monster’ – it was just a way of dealing with it.
“I went into the Walton Centre to have a craniectomy to remove the ‘monster’ in my head.
“The operation took longer than expected, but it was a success.
“The wait for results was absolutely nerveracking as I needed to know if I was going to be okay.
“The best Christmas present came three days before Christmas Day.”
Kim said that she has now returned to work.
She said: “I know it’s a cliché but I now cherish every single day.
“I now have a piece of metal in my head, but the headaches are gone.
“I would say to anyone going through a health crisis to believe in themselves and take support from friends and family. It helps.”