Rebecca Powell
Rebecca Powell has been incredibly brave to share her story with us…
28yr old Rebecca was diagnosed with a life changing brain tumour at the age of 27years old. Rebecca had been living a relatively normal life enjoying time with her friends and fiancé working in aviation and marketing before she suffered devastating and life changing news.
Rebecca talks us through her diagnosis ‘Just over a year ago on the 20th May everything was normal, I went to sleep feeling absolutely fine. My fiancé Ben found me on the floor having a fit which in turn was a full blown seizure which I have no recognition of’.
Rebecca was later on sent in to have an MRI scan which revealed that she did in fact have a brain tumour which was revealed as a result of being emitted to emergency A&E. She was diagnosed with Oligodendroglioma at Grade 2. Oligodendrogliomas are primary brain tumours that are a type of glioma. They’re the third most-common glioma, accounting for 2-5% of all primary brain tumours and 5-18% of gliomas.
The majority of oligodendrogliomas occur in the frontal lobe, and the second most common site affected is the temporal lobe.
They’re more common in adults, particularly in people aged 40-60, and are slightly more common in men than in women.
Oligodendrogliomas are divided into two types:
grade two oligodendrogliomas that grow very slowly
grade three oligodengliomas, also known as anaplastic oligodendroglioma. These grow faster and are more likely to spread. They are more common in older people aged 60-80.
Prior to Becky’s seizure she was experiencing severe headaches and a change in her pupil size. After hearing the devastating news that this is something that she would be living with, Becky and the team at John Radcliffe Hospital went over several options on how to treat her on which they decided it would be best to go under and remove as much of the tumour as possible. This was a difficult decision and was something that was tough to deal with potential risks post surgery.
Unfortunately on the day of the surgery it wasn’t a smooth experience for Becky. Before she was to undergo surgery it was found on recent scans that she had a tail on her tumour that was very close to a nerve that controlled the left hand side of her body. Because of this the only way to perform the surgery safely was to do it while she was awake, however due to her anxiety being too high the other option was to use a piece of equipment that currently wasn’t at the hospital resulting in the surgery being postponed by a week.
Thankfully the surgery went really well with no complications aside from recovery.
5 weeks into Becky’s recovery she found that her wound had leaked, as she had to be cautious of infection it was important that she was urgently emitted to hospital to check that everything was okay. This later transpired to weekly check-ups and monitoring to ensure she wouldn't have to be operated on again.
The day before Christmas Eve she had a blister appear which resulted in her needing emergency surgery. Her scans that day had shown that part of her skull was infected which resulted in her having surgery on Christmas day with part of her skull removed.
Becky is doing really well however her journey doesn’t end here which is why she hopes that telling her story will help others in similar situations as well as raise awareness in the hopes of providing better treatment to future patients.
Listen to her full story here