Hey everyone, I’m new here and happy to have found I’m not alone. I’m a 26 year old female, and I was diagnosed on December 20th with a 4.3 cm x 3.2 cm AN on my left side. I stayed in ICU for several days until I had a ventricular shunt placed on December 24th, and was released the next day. I found out recently that my surgeon moved his schedule around and I’m now having the removal surgery on January 28th.
The crazy part of my story is that this wasn’t caught through symptoms. In fact, I had basically no symptoms except for some mild headaches. I went in for my yearly eye exam, the doctor thought she saw something in my eye, and referred me to a retina specialist. The specialist noticed it was actually swelling and fluid, and referred me to a neuro-opthamologist. I didn’t even make it to that appointment, as about a week later I had a couple days where I felt nauseous and threw up. I went to the ER to get scanned at the advice of one of my doctors, and that’s when they found it.
Everything has moved so fast since the diagnosis, I don’t think I ever had enough time to really process it. I’m staying positive though!
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read!