| I can definitely say my life has not been the same since the evening of March 1st, 2020 when I was sitting in my college dining hall with my two best friends and I began to see flashes in my eyes and my legs went completely numb. My gut instinct knew something was wrong so I asked my friend to take me to the bathroom and when I looked at myself in the mirror I could not see myself back in the reflection. I then suffered a grand mal seizure. When I was taken to the hospital, CT and MRI imaging revealed what is most consistent with a cavernous malformation in my left occipital lobe. At first, I was going to go with the “watch and monitor” approach with medication and frequent imaging, but my symptoms began to worsen during the heightened months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through telemedicine, I met with a fantastic neurosurgeon on May 18th and scheduled surgery to have my malformation removed on June 2nd. Surgery was successful and I was in the hospital for 2 nights and released after that! Since then, I have been seizure and migraine free and feeling really great! Although I was definitely scared, I made decisions based on how I was feeling in that moment and also what would be best in the long run. I am only 20 years old and I have my entire life ahead of me, and I did not want to have this constantly dwelling in the back of my head, both literally and figuratively. Having an amazing support system of family and friends, and also a great medical team also helped immensely. Here are some news stories I was featured in as well, to hear more about telemedicine too! https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/07/15/wrap-your-brain-around-this–telehealth-is-transforming-neurosurgery http://westchester.news12.com/story/42321494/yorktown-college-student-back-on-her-feet-and-dancing-1-month-after-brain-surgery |