December 12th

Today is exactly 3 weeks since I had seizures, went to the ER, and found out I had a brain tumor. Shocking and totally unexpected! I wanted to share more about this journey with pictures and the story.

My first seizure (at least that I know of) happened on 11/21. I only knew about seizures related to epilepsy where people have tremors/jerking movements, and I don’t have this kind. Turns out there are different types of seizures with various symptoms and levels of severity, but I never considered that I could have a seizure in my life.

The first seizure happened while I was walking the dog Thursday morning. It was relatively mild and short; it felt like a jolt of electricity went up the inside of my body, and I got a strange metallic/acidic taste in my mouth and felt lightheaded like I would pass out, I sat on a landscaping rock for a few minutes.

Then I was able to get up and walk home. I told my husband what happened to me, but I had no idea what it was… I said maybe it was a panic attack (but didn’t know why I would have one) or that I didn’t eat enough breakfast and that’s why I got lightheaded and had to sit down.

I brushed it off and didn’t ask questions or Google information. I just went to work (I work from home full-time as an online health and fitness coach). The next seizure I had around noon was more severe, incapacitating, and long-lasting. I was sitting at my desk working, like any normal day, when it hit me.

I called my mom in a panic, trying to tell her something was wrong and I didn’t know what. She called 911 and came directly to my house, and they took me in the ambulance to the ER.

In the ER they did an MRI and found I had a glioma in my brain. It’s a slow-growing mass of cells. Gliomas are tumors from glial cells, which support and protect nerve cells. They are classified as low grades 1-2 or high grades 3-4.

Thankfully, I have low grades 1-2 with an excellent prognosis. We’re going to MD Anderson in late December to figure out a treatment plan for 2025.

Being in the ICU was pretty scary, but I was a bit oblivious at first because I was barely conscious for the first couple of days. I couldn’t have a conversation or focus on anything, and I was in pain and very nauseous.

Despite that, the phrase continually in my head was, “The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1) and I had a sense of peace.

Our pastors were the first people to show up Friday morning, and they prayed over me. Our long-time friends also came Friday to pray. I couldn’t follow and focus on what they were saying, but I could feel the presence of God.

I started to regain awareness and clarity on Saturday. My parents, sisters & BIL, and mother-in-law were all so supportive in helping with the kids and everything.

Of course, Brian Hodges was my rock, there day and night sleeping on a horrid little hospital couch.

I had a procedure on Monday where they extracted cells to do a pathology report. I didn’t really eat from Thursday to Monday evening and was woken up every couple of hours while in the ICU for 5 days. These are some of the roughest parts - eating and sleeping are important!

I went home Tuesday and my awesome brother-in-law came and put the turkey in our oven on Thanksgiving. My family brought over a great Thanksgiving meal, and we celebrated.

Here’s another unfortunate bump in the road…

My baby sister has been in med school for several years, and she’s going to be a doctor. She was very carefully observing everything from her expert POV. She warned me that I needed to keep a close eye on things because my anti-seizure medication was probably not a high enough/accurate dose.

Turns out that the week following Thanksgiving I had several more seizures at home and had to go back to the ER on Sunday. They did a CT scan that came back great and adjusted my medications (increasing my dosage of anti-seizure meds so I would not have any more).

I’ve been recovering since Sunday and adjusting to my new meds, but am doing much better now—I think the saying is “The third week is the charm.”

Some of the best things that helped me (besides rest and the medication) are that my friend Heather did my hair, and my friend Celeste gifted me a weighted blanket - this has helped soooo much to improve my sleep quality and calm my nervous system.

And the power of prayer is real. The prayers and support have been so overwhelmingly generous; it blows my mind, and we are extremely grateful. We have an army behind us to help with food, kids, and anything we could think of.

So that’s me for now. We’re taking it one day at a time.

Thanks for your prayers and we’ll keep you updated!