I thought my seizures were due to stress – turns out I had a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball

A woman from England had chalked up the seizures that she was getting to stress – but it turns out her diagnosis was a lot more severe than that.

Helen Green, 58, had told her doctor about the seizures, which she thought was due to the stress of the ongoing pandemic at the time.

But, just a few hours later, she was told after an MRI scan that she had a 6cm tumor the size of a tennis ball on the left temporal lobe of her brain.

“I went into hospital at 8:30 a.m. and at 3:30 p.m. I was told I had a brain tumor,” Green told South West News Service.

“I thought it was a death sentence.”

She claimed that the doctors told her that they were shocked she was still able to talk and walk because of the tumor’s size and location, according to the outlet.

Typically, the kind of tumor that Green has leaves patients unable to speak, and can even affect their long-term memory at times.

She explained that after doctors told her the diagnosis, she and her mom, Sheila, 83, broke down in tears – but she was able to brave the next steps.

After Green’s doctors had found the tumor, she had a four-hour surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where they removed the mass.

Her mom told SWNS that she couldn’t stop looking at the clock when her daughter was in the operating room.

Green’s mass ended up being a “low-grade meningioma,” which is a type of “low grade” tumor that tends to grow slowly, according to The National Cancer Institute.

Those who are diagnosed with this type of low-grade mass are usually adults, and more than 80% of them have a chance of survival for five years or more after being diagnosed, according to The Brain Tumour Charity.

“I named the tumor duckie egg and the triplets as it was around the size of a duck egg,” Green admitted.

“The doctors also found three shadows which is where the triplets came from.”

The 58-year-old spent five days recovering from the surgery, however, it wasn’t easy, as she struggled to walk and had problems speaking – something she still deals with today.

She also remembers being very tired.

“I couldn’t bring myself to tell people I had a brain tumor,” Green said. “I couldn’t accept what it really was.”

“It was hard to come to terms with it but a way for me to cope was to put a positive spin on it.”

Now, Green has to get regular checkups to make sure that her tumor doesn’t return. She explained that the ordeal still affects her, describing it all as “overwhelming.” She still struggles with her recovery, and wants to be able to get back to how life used to be.

But still, despite it all, she is trying to remain positive and count her blessings that she’s still alive.

“To think that I had been living all those years and carrying it around with me – the outcome could have been different if I found it earlier,” Green said.

“I am lucky to be here and grateful to wake up in the morning.”

Unfortunately, Green isn’t the only one to have had some strange symptoms before being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

In December 2020, one man described smelling “phantom” smells that reminded him of matches or fireworks, and was later diagnosed with a pea-sized glioblastoma.

And, just last month, a mom shared her story about her daughter, who is suffering from a rare type of brain tumor that some doctors think is the only case of its kind in Europe. At first, her mom thought her daughter had a stomach bug.