A DESPERATE mother who went to A&E for help with excruciating headaches was advised to “rest and watch Netflix” before finally being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour.
Lisa Thomas had symptoms including dizziness and headaches, which were initially dismissed and blamed on fatigue and sinusitis even after she passed out while she was working as an air traffic controller.
The 46-year-old from Alton, had been assured by her GP that it had been an isolated incident but seven months later, in May 2017, her symptoms worsened and she woke up in agony.
Lisa said: “I’d never felt pain like it. When I got to the hospital, I felt as though I was being treated as a time waster, as staff were quite dismissive and I was told to take antibiotics.
“The junior doctor even said to me it’s nothing serious and that I should go home, rest and watch Netflix to help me relax.”
Feeling as if she had been “hit over the head with a hammer” she was taken by ambulance to A&E to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.
Lisa returned to her GP and was referred to the ear nose and throat clinic, which would mean a three-month-long wait to be seen. On the hunt for an answer, she paid for a private scan at Nuffield Health Wessex Hospital in Eastleigh, which confirmed there was a tumour growing on her brain.
She added: “It felt like a relief that the tumour was accessible and could be removed but I was very scared. I remember looking up ‘GBM’ online and finding out the awful prognosis.
“At first, I couldn’t look at my two boys without crying, imagining them growing up without me being around. My family has been incredibly supportive. My parents sold their house in Scotland and moved to be closer to us, as we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
A week-and-a-half after her diagnosis, surgeons at Southampton General Hospital removed the tumour.
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She has since received three-monthly scans to monitor for any re-growth of the tumour and after two years of clear scans, she regained her driving licence and now has scans just twice a year.
The Hampshire mother is also paying privately for treatment at Care Oncology Clinic in London. The treatment involves taking re-purposed drugs, which she believes is helping her to stay well.
She added: “I think of this as a preventative measure and wonder if that’s helping to keep my scans clear."
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Kimberley Barber.
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