Woman dismisses pain in cheek as stress, doctors discover a rare tumour in her brain | Trending

A woman who went to the doctor complaining about facial pain which she thought was due to being stressed was shocked to hear their diagnosis was much more serious. According to the New York Post, 38-year-old Nicola Shaw had returned from a trip to Antarctica when she felt a “tingling” in her cheek. After suffering severe facial pain, Nicola Shaw discovered she had a meningioma, a rare brain tumor.(braintumourresearch.org) Thinking it was caused stress, Shaw ignored the pain. However, it soon spread to her nose, eye and head becoming so intense she had to keel over and clutch her head in agony. When she went to see a doctor, they sent her to get an MRI. Calling it an “overreaction”, Shaw went for an MRI but it revealed something that shocker her. The scan showed that she had a meningioma — a tumor in a rare and dangerous location near her brain stem and optic nerve. She had to undergo a 10-hour surgery to remove the tumour. The doctors successfully removed 95% of the tumor, but just six months later it grew back. ‘Thought it was stress’The 38-year-old teacher from Manchester thought the pain was “just stress” and only suspected something was wrong when she had to clutch her head in agony as it kept growing. “At first, I thought it was just stress, but January 2023, the pain had spread to my nose, eye, and head. It was so intense it would stop me in my tracks, leaving me keeled over, clutching my head in agony,” she told UK media, said a report the New York Post. Even when she was in severe pain, Shaw thought her doctor’s suggestion to get an MRI was “unnecessary and over the top.” “Eventually, I gave in, never expecting what was to come. The scan revealed a meningioma, a tumor in a rare and dangerous location near my brain stem and left optic nerve. I was in denial and insed they had the wrong person, but the truth was evident in the scans, and I had to see a neurosurgeon as soon as possible,” she said Nicola was shocked to know how rare the tumour and its location was. “The doctor explained that my tumor was a nine out of ten in terms of difficulty to remove, and only 2% of cases are found in this location. It didn’t fill me with much hope, but after a second opinion, we decided to operate,” she said. After she underwent a 10-hour surgery at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago she continued to stuggle. After the surgery she suffered from double vision, memory loss, and jaw pain, and tried Botox to try and heal it. She spent months healing and now with regular scans to monitor her brain, the tumor is fortunately stable. She has already raised over $7,000 for Brain Tumor Research as she prepares for a 50-kilometer charity trek across the Sahara Desert on March 27, 2025. Over six days, Nicola will face intense heat, towering sand dunes, and grueling dances, joined 15 others who have personal connections to brain tumors. (Also read: Man goes to doctor for toothache, leaves with a shocking prostate cancer diagnosis)