My brain tumour was the size of an orange
A routine test to check out her blurred vision revealed Michelle Crawford had a condition that could have killed her within months, writes LAURA MILNE
WHEN Michelle Crawford noticed that her vision in one eye was slightly blurred she wasn’t too worried but after a few months she decided to book an appointment to have it checked anyway. It proved to be a fortuitous decision that may well have saved the life of the 44-year-old mother of two.
Michelle, from Lanark in Scotland, was diagnosed with a brain tumour behind her left eye. Roughly the size of an orange, if left untreated it would have killed her within six months.
“I was so close to not bothering,” admits Michelle, who is married to Donald, 44, and has sons Charlie, 18, and Tom, 15. “It was easy to put it on the back burner when it didn’t feel like a major problem.”
Apart from the slight blurriness, which was only noticeable when she wore contact lenses, Michelle had no symptoms at all, so there was no clue anything was seriously amiss when she visited a Specsavers store in July 2015.
It was only when Michelle happened to mention that the problem was only at the side of her vision that her optometrist Rubena Kerr decided to carry out a visual field check.
“A visual field test checks the visual pathway situated between your eyes and your brain,” explains Rubena.
“It will show up any defect by showing a pattern of missing points. These patterns are then used to help diagnose certain conditions including glaucoma, diabetic changes and various tumours.
“The test revealed that half of Michelle’s pattern of points was missing. This is very uncommon and a major indication that
something serious may be wrong.” Michelle was immediately referred to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, where doctors carried out a CT scan of her brain and discovered that she had a grade 1 meningioma located at the front of her brain, behind her eye. A meningioma is a non-cancerous tumour of the meninges, which is the protective lining of the brain and spinal cord.
This type of tumour tends to be more common in older people and in women, although they can affect anyone.
Between a quarter and a third (25-33 per cent) of all primary brain tumours in adults are meningiomas and more than 90 per cent are benign and slow growing. However experts say the word “benign” can be misleading because, as these types of tumours grow and press on the brain, they can cause disability and even become life-threatening.
Symptoms begin gradually and vary but can include headaches, seeing double or blurred vision, muscle weakness, personality changes, confusion and memory loss. As meningiomas often grow slowly, the brain can become accustomed to their presence as they gently push and compress rather than invade brain tissue.
SOMETIMES, as in Michelle’s case, the signs may not be obvious and meningiomas may be found in tests for other conditions.
“In my 25-year career as an optometrist I’ve helped to spot a few brain tumours but I’d never before seen a case like this,” says Rubena. “She didn’t have any symptoms often associated with tumours – headaches or seizures – and there were no abnormalities in the photo of the back of her eye during her eye exams.”
Eight weeks after her diagnosis Michelle underwent a 15-hour operation to remove the tumour. Doctors from all over Scotland gathered to observe the procedure, which had only been carried out a handful of times there.
She says: “Before surgery, it was explained that it was very unlikely they would be able to save my eye as the tumour was so close to it, and that I may be unable to walk or speak.” Michelle did lose the sight in her left eye after she regained consciousness. She also temporarily suffered from aphasia (a condition that causes problems using or understanding language) which left her unable to speak for three days.
Her recovery involved having to relearn words to improve her speech and she is yet to undergo surgery to correct drooping of her eye. A piece of her skull was removed during the operation and 10 months later it was replaced with a metal plate.
“My consultant was amazed at the progress I made after three months of working very hard to regain my speech,” says Michelle.
“Aside from losing the sight in my left eye and, as a result, being unable to drive for the rest of my life, I have been extremely lucky. Losing that sight has been a huge adjustment but I know things could have been very different and I might not have been around to watch my sons grow up.”
She adds: “I’ve since discovered that if I hadn’t had surgery when I did it’s likely my condition would have deteriorated very quickly and I wouldn’t have been well enough for it to go ahead. If that scenario had played out it may have been more about prolonging my life rather than saving it.”
Sarah Lindsell of the The Brain Tumour Charity says: “Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK. Michelle’s ordeal highlights the devastating impact low grade – non-malignant – tumours can have. There is no such thing as a ‘benign’ tumour when it’s in the brain.”
For more information on meningiomas and other types of brain tumours contact the Brain Tumour Charity at thebraintumour charity.org or call 0808 800 0004