Co-Chair Share from Whitney White

Howdy y’all! 

I am super excited to write this blog entry just a few short weeks away from the big 5^th anniversary race.  What an honor!  Well, I will start with the basics: name, age, life story.  I’ll shorten up the latter to the last 3 years because that is when my life got really interesting! 

My name is Whitney White.  I am 36 years old.  I am a brain tumor survivor. I am a mother of 2 beautiful girls ages 4 & 3.  I am a wife that works full time with a husband that works more hours than I can tell you.  We keep afloat with the help of our family.  I was diagnosed on July 31, 2012.  I will remember that day forever and not because I found out I had a softball size brain tumor.  That is also the day I gave birth to my second daughter.  I had complications throughout pregnancy that I just chalked up to being pregnant. During the summer. In Texas.  I had completely lost the use of my right arm and leg.  The baby was sitting on a nerve.  I was losing my train of thought mid sentence. Pregnancy brain.  All pregnancy symptoms that they said should go away after I delivered.  Well, they didn’t.  They got worse.  I had an “episode” in front of my other daughter and my sister shortly after I delivered.  It was like I just got stuck and had to reset.  My sister handled it very well; she didn’t make any facial expressions or express any concern to my face.  She would be great at poker.  Once I turned my back, she grabbed my husband and the nurse and told them exactly what happened.  Once I was in my room, the nurses started checking me for a stroke.  By 2:00 pm, I was doing a CT Scan and by 5:00 pm I was told that I had a softball size mass on my brain.  2 ½ weeks later, I had my first brain surgery. I was told afterwards that my meningoma was attached to my saggittal sinus. That is the main blood vessel to and from the brain. It was also suggested that it could come back as he HAD to leave a sliver of it there and there was no way he could get it all. As my doctor so eloquently put it, if he touched the sinus, I would not get off the table and my husband would not like him very much.  How’s that for bed side manner?  No, I really love my doctor.  He is very black and white.  No bull.  Tell me like it is.  So, here I am.  I have a 19 month old and a 2 ½ week old and I had brain surgery…just another day in paradise. 

Fast forward to March, 2014.  I did my yearly obligation and went and had an MRI.  The pictures showed some growth.  After several appointments with a radiation oncologist and my neurosurgeon, we decided I should wait another 6 months and repeat the scan.  In October, I did and it showed 30% growth from March.  It was time to make a decision.  I decided to have another surgery in February, 2015.  My hair had just grown to shoulder length.  Ugh….another bald head for a couple of weeks.  Surgery went great.  Hey, I have the easy part.  No stress, just go to sleep and wake up and have people waiting on me!  In June, I did my 6 month MRI and the doctor who looks at the scans, which his occupation name escapes me at the moment, has now labeled my tumor is inoperable.  The tumor itself is now wrapped around the sinus.  So, what’s a girl to do?  I just recently spoke to the radiation doctor and we’ve decided to wait 6 months and see how the tumor is doing and go from there.  You know, see if we can get it anything.  A drink perhaps?

6 months after my first surgery I found Kelly and the Brain Power 5K.  What a relief.  Here was someone that I could talk to who had had brain surgery.  Just like me.    We were brain buddies!  Then she introduced me to other brain buddies!  Once you have an “extreme” common denominator with someone, you become instant family.  You know what, let’s drop the instant part because that’s only a timing issue. Family. That’s what the Brain Power 5K is to me.  I have made so many friends. I care about them.  I care about their treatments.  I care about how they are doing.  I care about the organization. 

I’m a talker.  Some might suggest that I do this at a volume not meant for human ears.  So, when I was asked to be the Co-Honoree for this year, I was honored. In fact, I cried a little. Ok, ok, a lot.  I cried a lot. What an honor!  This feeling of being able to do what I love the most, talking very loudly, about something that I love, the Brain Power 5K!  I can shout from the hill tops about the BP5K!  You know, as long as nobody is watching me.  I have a fear of public speaking in which the BP5K has helped me overcome.  Well, not entirely overcome. I’m still nervous as hell but I power through it.  Babbling along the bumpy road of talking in front of a microphone, sometimes even in front of several hundred people, on a jumbo-tron.   I try to focus on  the fact that ultimately maybe someone out there might be going through the same things I did and has no where to turn to get support. I’m not suggesting that I’m like a miracle worker and all the angels from heaven come down and shine their light on me but I like to think that maybe a little reflection from an angel’s horn somehow ends up on my head at the right moment.

I will be running around on Sunday, September 13^th handing out all my team shirts and packets.  You know, I can never be pro-active and do things in advance.  That’s not how I operate.  I will be reflecting on all the good things that can come from this, that HAS come from this.  I am blessed.  I am healthy.  I have amazing friends.  I have an amazing family.   To show my nerd side, “Family is all that matters.” – Walt Disney.