Brain Tumor Surgery for Tonianne

January of 2017 Tonianne gave birth to her Daughter. It was a happy time and she was adjusting to being a first time mom at the age of 20. She had suffered from  Hyperemesis Gravidarum throughout her pregnancy (a severe type of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy) and thought her body was taking some time to fully recover when she had occasional vomiting episodes and bad headaches. She had discussed her worries with other moms and was reassured it was normal. Despite her headaches and nausea getting worse she continued her daily life as best she could. It wasn’t until August 28th 2017 when we knew something bigger was the cause of her new symptoms. Tonianne had her first Grand Mal seizure at around 2 a.m. It was after she was rushed to the hospital that they found Tonianne had a lesion in the frontal right lobe of her brain and what was believed to be a 9mm Pineal Cyst. She was put on Kepra, a seizure medication and was given medication to help treat the headaches she recently began having. The hospital performed a spinal tap on her to try and rule out Menegistis and MS. After being released from the hospital the following morning, Tonianne was referred to a neurologist to follow up with the following week. In the meanwhile her headaches became debilitating, and often caused her to scream and cry in pain with no relief from medicine and she began to lose feeling in her legs. The day of her appointment , another headache occurred and she had lost feeling in both of her legs completely, leaving her unable to walk. Once we got to the doctor they immediately decided to admit her and began doing neurological assessments on her. It was discovered that during the spinal tap, a small hole was punctured causing all of her CFS fluid to leak outside of her spinal cord and put pressure on her nerves. This ultimately resulted in her inability to walk when the hospital refused to do a blood patch to fix it. After a month long hospital stay and only learning what Tonianne did not have rather than what she did, we decided to transfer her to another hospital in another state. At this hospital Tonianne underwent further test to rule out possible diagnoses such as an auto immune disease or possible exposer to parasites and infectious disease. After a few weeks Tonianne began light physical therapy to work on her ability to stand again. This hospital also was only able to tell us what Tonianne did not have rather than what she did. She was discharged and referred to a rehabilitation center to learn how to walk again. Fast forward to June and Tonianne had another seizure while sitting in the car after getting home from work. After a new MRI was done we discovered Tonianne’s lesion was actually shrinking. 




After her follow up appointment, we found out that the lesion in the frontal lobe was completely gone but the pineal cyst was still there. As of recent Tonianne’s symptoms have gotten increasingly worse. She currently suffers with migraines as well as nausea, vomiting, trouble sleeping , and an increase in visual disturbances which has caused us to return to the neurologist. Several doctors have told Tonianne that her cyst was not the cause of her symptoms because pineal cyst are viewed as asymptomatic and a common coincidental finding. It wasn’t until recently when we visited the hospital that we discovered it is a cystic tumor having characteristic of both a cyst and tumor and slowly becoming calcified. Being the region of the brain it was found though, only three doctors in the US preform the surgery needed to remove it. The most experienced one being a world renowned Nuerosurgeon Dr. Dong Kim in Houston Texas who operates out of Memorial Hermann Hospital. Unfortunately the surgery is incredibly costly and Tonianne’s insurance is not accepted by Dr.Kim and his team. Pineal cyst can cause migraines, nausea/ vomiting, blindness, hydrocephalus and the surgery to remove it can even cause death. This is why it is so important to us that we see Dr.Kim for this delicate procedure. We hope that out of the kindness of your heart you can donate to a mother and be apart of helping her get lifesaving surgery which will allow her return to a normal life with her family! Thank you for any and all contributions from our family to yours !