Local woman needs your help in fight for her life.
Carlette McSpadden knew something was wrong with her, t hat much was for sure.
Her children had told her the same thing, and day by day her memory got worse and she had problems in her work at the Department of Family and Children's Services, where she was a manager. She'd been demoted.
"I knew something was wrong," McSpadden said. "Last year at this time, I didn't know anything or anyone. And I still have some problems with that, but not as bad."
She couldn't talk, remember her middle child, and her memory was "about ten seconds long."
At the time McSpadden lived in Ringgold, and at one point she went into a Family Dollar location and got lost within, and received help from a clerk in the store.
"After that my daughter wouldn't allow me to go anywhere by myself," she said.
Eventually McSpadden went to several doctor with different opinions about the problem, and after tests and scans of her head, a tumor was found on the pineal gland deep within her brain. Months after diagnosis and other trips to clinics around the country, McSpadden eventually got it removed.
Unfortunately for her, the tumor has come back and she's scheduled once again for surgery in Houst on, Texas. Only one problem for McSpadden: she doesn't have the funds to make the trip.
To that end, McSpadden and her family are organizing several opportunities this coming weekend to help get the needed money to make the trip, which she said she'll take no matter what happens.
Her story began in 2015, when a variety of symptoms from memory loss and forgetfulness at work to signs seen in her children made McSpadden aware something was wrong. By the time she got to the doctor later in the year, she was getting worse.
A physician she saw in Rome believed after tests and scans that she had a cyst on her pineal gland, found in the middle of the brain above the cerebellum and pituitary gland. This was after others thought first it was undiagnosed sleep apnea, and another thought it was lesions on the brain from small strokes. Another specialist believed instead that she had conversion disorder.
"If you don't know anything about it, it can look like something else than what it is," she said.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio wanted to study her case during a visit for a further consultation, but she was unable to afford to pay.
"All this time I was out of work, and having to figure out whether I could pay my hotel bill," she said. "I asked them if they were going to put me up, and when they said no I told them I would stay just one more night."
Eventually, she connected with a doctor in California who confirmed the original diagnosis in April 2016: it's a tumor, and it needs to come out as soon as possible.
"We did a phone consul- tation via Skype, and he said ' yes, something is wrong with you, and if we don't get it out it's going to get worse,'" McSpadden said. "And I'm thinking, oh maybe in a year or so. And he said no, within 45 days. And this was in April."
It was good they did. Her symptoms got worse - she began to stammer, she lost feeling in the right side of her face and vision in her good eye and began having seizures. McSpadden previously had cornea implants, and though legally blind in one eye can still read and drive.
All these symptoms at the time came from dysfunction of the pineal gland being pressed against by a tumor. Where it sits in the brain, nearly in the middle of the brain itself between the two hemispheres, isn't the only issue. The gland is also responsible for making melatonin, which causes her to sleep much more than other people.
"You name the medication, I take it," she said."I take something to help me sleep, and something to help me wake up. I take something to help control the seizures and a lot more."
By this time, McSpadden was living again in Cedartown with her daughter Shandia Calhoun, her oldest, who took her mother in and has been helping her during the struggle to figure out both what was her problem, and then get her surgical help as well.
Later on during the fall of 2016, McSpadden took a bus to Houston and got the surgery, then returned home with orders from her doctors there to come back for quarterly checkups.
"I didn't have the money to go back every three months, and my income had stopped in January," she said. "And so several months later, I started having headaches and couldn't see out of my right eye again."
With the return of her symptoms also came the fact that McSpadden's tumor returned, a surprise to everyone. It's in the same exact place after getting an MRI - magnetic resonance image - of her brain once again.
"I ask myself with what I've been through in life, I ask God ' why me and why now?'," McSpadden said. "But then I remember: why not you?"
She's scheduled to be back in the operating room to have the second tumor removed later this month on Aug. 23, and is hoping that this time she can get the help of the community to cover some of the costs of the trip.
McSpadden will renting out the Turner Street Community Center at Turner Street Park on Saturday first for a barbecue sale being organized by her son, and it'll last as long as there is meat and fixings to sell.
Her other fundraiser will come later in the evening and is set to start at 6 p.m.. Those interested in attending will be able to bid on donated items in a silent auction and taken part in casinostyle games for tickets, which can then be traded for prizes at the end of the evening.
McSpadden said she'll also be giving away door prizes.
Her hopes is that when she heads to Houston, she won't have to worry about the associated costs and will be able to enter the surgery with her mind clear of at least one concern.
Either way however, McSpadden said she has no choice but to make the journey again.
"I have to laugh to keep from crying, because I'm scared," she said. "After what I've been through in life, I feel like I'm still jumping over hurdles. I've lost everything except my sense of humor."
McSpadden said that she still has hope despite all the complications in her life currently, and not just for herself. She has hope that everyone will take a lesson from her predicament, and remember that no matter what struggles life presents that all can face them with a smile.