‘If my tumour expands by a cm, I’m dead’
Debbie Clough has lived with an inoperable, but benign, tumour entangled with her brain for more than 10 years.
But the spider-like mass has started to grow, threatening to take the 54-year-old woman’s eyesight and ability to swallow unless she undergoes six to seven weeks of radiotherapy which has a 20 per cent chance of failure.
‘‘I know it’s going to be rough, but I’m tired and ready for treatment,’’ Clough, of Waimate, told Stuff.
‘‘If the brain tumour expands by a centimetre, I’m dead.’’
Clough will take her one-year-old labrador, Harry, to Christchurch to comfort her through 30 daily radiotherapy sessions starting September 22.
She is determined to get better for husband, Nick, children Kate and Michael, and three-month-old grandson Archie.
Clough said she was diagnosed with a cavernous sinus meningioma in 2008 – but because the large tumour was wrapped around her optic nerve, sinuses, pituitary gland, carotid artery, and brain stem, it couldn’t be removed.
So every two years, Clough has undergone a magnetic resonance imaging scan so doctors can keep an eye on the tumour.
‘‘We’d forgotten about it because every time I had a scan, nothing had really changed.’’
However, Clough recently began to lose sensation inside her throat and felt pain near her ear.
‘‘They [doctors] said it was coming down on the inside of my head and it was too close to my eyes, that they needed to stop it from doing any serious damage,’’ she said.
‘‘It was a bit of a shock.’’