‘I KNEW I HAD TO HAVE BRAIN OP STRAIGHT AWAY’
Young mum required emergency surgery to remove brain tumour
WHEN young mum Antonia James was referred for a CT scan following crippling headaches, she had no idea she would be having emergency brain surgery just five days later.
The headaches and blurred vision that the 23-year-old, from Neath, had dismissed as hormonal had in fact been the result of a tumour growing on her brain.
It was only when Antonia, began losing feeling in the right side of her body that she decided to go to the doctors.
“I was terrified, I thought I’d had a mini stroke. There are a history of strokes in my family so I started worrying.
“I noticed that I started having blurred vision and slurred speech, and my right arm was gradually getting weaker. I also started getting really bad headaches: they were so bad that I would just sleep for the whole weekend I was in so much pain.”
Despite the agony, for weeks Antonia thought it was a side effect of the contraceptive pill. After an initial doctor’s visit, she was referred for an emergency CT scan.
After the scan, Antonia was not allowed to go home as planned but was instead transferred to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
“I knew they had found something serious because I was told I wasn’t allowed to go home and had to go to the Heath straight away.
As a mum to two-year-old Sunny, it was then that Antonia was told the devastating news that there was a tumour on her brain that would need removing immediately.
Fortunately, the tumour was benign but would still require major brain surgery to remove.
“I think I was more numb when they told me. I was shocked more than scared – to me there were no questions around being scared I just knew I had to have the surgery straight away. I just thought I had to do whatever I could to be there for my little girl,” she said.
While the right side of her body had been gradually worsening before the operation, when she woke up she lost the majority of movement in her right side.
“After the operation, I woke up completely paralysed on one side. The whole right side of my body just stopped working,” she said.
“Physically it’s my arm that’s been mostly affected. My consultant said it’s probably because this was what was being used the most while I had the tumour.
“I had to learn how to walk and talk again. So I was walking with a stick for a while and I still have a bit of a stutter now.”
A year on from the operation, Antonia still only has 30% use of her right arm and says she has some mental side effects.
“It’s affected my cognitive skills too, so I find it really difficult to concentrate and get distracted easily.
“I’ve had to get used to using my left hand now – I was right-handed before – but things like that have been difficult. It has been hard, recovery with a two-year-old – I’ve had to learn to do everything again.
“Lots of people offered to help but I was so determined I wanted to do it for myself and look after Sunny.”
Since the operation on May 10 2019, Antonia has had to completely re-adjust to her new life. After a month in rehabilitation in Cardiff and Neath Port Talbot, she was slowly able to build up strength in her body again.
“The whole thing just happened really fast. It was more overwhelming than anything,” she said.
“I don’t think it really sunk in what I’d been through – I thought that I’d be up and back in work in three weeks. I didn’t really think it through.
“People always say how well I’ve dealt with it but I think it’s only now when I think about it do I realise what a big thing it was – to me there was no choice other than to get on with it for my little girl.
“It still takes me longer to do things, whether it’s physical or cognitive, but I’m now able to walk, talk and be a mother to my little girl.”