The Short Version.. Seriously!

In 1998, I was a senior at a university, about to graduate in a few months.
I started to get headaches, at times very painful ones, right over my left eyebrow. The doctor changed my birth control pill several times, but I continued to have them.

One night, I was sitting in my bed, trying to read a book, and I couldn't see the print very well. Time went on, and my vision was worse and worse. It got to the point that I couldn't read my own handwriting. I remember being very scared I was loosing my eyesight.

I went to a doctor, he told me to try some drops and come back in three weeks. (the drops were like those natural tears stuff)

In that three week time frame, I saw several more doctors. One doctor said she wanted to do more testing for a detached retina, but scheduled an MRI to rule out anything else.

I had made "deals" with God before, but this time I was serious. I was lying in the MRI machine and I prayed. I told God to please have them find SOMETHING. If He would let them find something, then I'd never leave His side. So many people kept brushing me off as though it was all in my head (they didn't know how close they were to the truth).

The MRI came back: tumor. I was SO excited. Literally. God had answered my prayer!

I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor (or pituitary adenoma). The reason why they couldn't properly diagnose me is because I didn't have the typical symptoms (trust me, I've never been typical). With these tumors, you usually have high sensitivity to light (check), massive headaches (check), and loss of peripheral vision (oops, got all mine).

This is the best tumor to have if you ever have a brain tumor. Most of the time they are benign, which mine is. Mine is also non-secreting. What that means is that mine didn't secrete hormones into my system.. . .another tell-tale sign you have this type of tumor.

Well, I've kept my end of the bargain. I've never left God's side, not even for a second. I'm not at all perfect, but I refuse to compromise... that's what led to the first time I wandered. It was harmless; but after one, it was easy to do more compromising.

Since then, I've had two "debluking" surgeries and have to get MRIs every year to check on the growth.

I wish it would go away. I wish after that first surgery that would have been it; but I'm a slow learner. See, the Bible says that God will not leave me or forsake me. He has a "work" he is doing in me, and He won't stop until it's finished. I praise Him for that. Trust me, you wouldn't want my ways to be like God's ways. The trees would always bloom like magnolias and smell as sweet as a rose (kinda sickening after awhile). And I would have tossed those aside who wandered as far as I did.


Check out Philippians 1:6