I remember the morning of 9/11/01 well. I was at work and we heard about the 1st plane. My supervisor said " It's terrorists". I thought he was just being dramatic and that was was some kind of accident. When we found out the truth and I was home from work, my last f/t job, I called my family who lived in Manhattan. Everyone was fine. Then I spoke to my friend, my childhood friend, and she told me that two classmates we know were killed. They were working for Cantor Fitzgerald. And you know…

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I have been on vacation this past week. Although wonderful, it is stirring up very sad feelings. I first went to Vermont and saw my cousin Sharon. Sharon was amazing to me when I had my surgery and radiation in 1987, when I was 11 yrs. old. She came to visit me in the hospital all the time, made me cookies, made my face up, etc. Sharon and I grew apart as she aged. Now she is married with two children. And I'm happy that she is loving life.



I also saw my childhood best friend in…

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I've always enjoyed celebrating my mom. Not only is she the reason I'm living, but she is the reason that I willed myself to live. My trigeminal nueralgia pain was so unbearable that I easily could have jumped off of a bridge. However, knowing it might have emotionally crippled my mom is why I never did.

I remember when I was in my mid 20's thinking I had plenty of time to be a mother. I also thought that I never would want to adjust my pain medicine (which didn't manage the pain) for…

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 I feel so grateful that my worst days are behind me. I should feel grateful that my surgery and radiation treatments are done, that I've managed with my left sided-weakness, deaf left ear and bad balance, and I survived trigeminal neuralgia pain without proper treatment for 12 years.  Depending on my mood of the day I can feel relieved, thrilled, and sometimes grateful that I can finally focus on living. I never could truly focus on my future. You can't when you're in agonizing pain.…

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Although it's been two decades since my brain tumor treatment, I don't think that I've ever grieved. I was so busy trying to move past my many side effects and my trigeminal neuralgia, chronic facial pain, that I never really understood the entire impact that my brain tumor has had on my life. I probably won't understand it in its entirety until I'm 90.



I understand how my education and career was impacted and I'm really not sure if that's something that I will ever accept. It's… Continue

I've been trying to sort out my feelings about how my life has been up to this point. It's not something that I really want to do but, I think it's something that's needed if I want to make my life better. I think that one of the biggest problems may be that I'm just lonely. I didn't really have any peers to share my feelings with. I never knew any other children who had a benign brain tumor or something similar. I had one friend who came to visit me while I was recovering at home after my… Continue

I was just a frilly girl who loved gymnastics and dancing. I knew that my mom was successful in part, because of her education, I planned on getting an Ivy League education, like both of my parents. I practiced gymastics and studied. I was proud of my high grades. That was how it was, in my eleven year old mind.



Even today, as a 36 yr. old woman, I haven't been able to fully absorb how my life changed because of my brain tumor diagnosis.My parents found out and two weeks later the… Continue