An Inspiring Lady Trying To Help And Inspire Others

wbcgaruss

Below are a couple videos of a very inspiring lady who, like all of us on here, suddenly had head and neck cancer to deal with.

And like many of us, it changed her life forever.

But she fought on and is now a motivational speaker.

I found her very inspiring and just wanted to share this with the rest of you on here.

Maybe you are at a difficult point in your treatment or life and just need that little extra inspiration to help you.

An Inspiring Lady Trying To Help And Inspire Others

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VoJb2XbE-5c

Speaker Jodi O. Brown: Humiliation vs Humility - How my life changed because of 2 CNAs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClnMfmAhlKA

You Are Beautiful: Brain Tumor Survivor Discovers True Identity, Jodi Orgill Brown, Facial Paralysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5cqB_rJw0E

Head & Neck cancer patients often have it tougher in treatment and recovery because so much of what we do is focused in that area. Breathing, swallowing, taste, saliva, sight, hearing, and more. This is one lady who keeps fighting on to live as normal a life as possible.
Jodi Orgill Brown: This Woman’s Face Paralysis Is So Severe That She’ll Never Smile Again
THIS WOMAN picked up a mysterious illness whilst living in the Middle East that caused a brain tumour – and it’s left her with facial paralysis so severe that she’ll NEVER smile again. When interactions and communications expert, speaker, and author Jodi Orgill Brown (44) from Ogden, Utah, USA, suffered with dizziness when she was out jogging in June 2008, she thought it was because she wasn’t very good at the sport. As the months went on, Jodi developed debilitating migraines and bouts of vertigo. In April 2009, Jodi was finally diagnosed with a brain tumour after initially not thinking her symptoms were linked and being persuaded by her husband, Tolan (49), to go back to the doctor. Jodi’s brain tumour was located between her right auditory canal and brainstem and it is unknown what type of tumour she had because pathology reports determined it was unidentifiable.
Jodi lived in Israel and travelled the Middle East in 1996 and doctors suspect that she picked up an autoimmune disease, or similar, whilst there which resulted in the tissue growing on her brain. In May, Jodi underwent surgery where 80 per cent of the tumour was removed but due to the proximity to her brainstem, the operation was not without complications. Jodi’s nerves were damaged which lead to facial paralysis, hearing loss, pneumocephalus which is the presence of air in the cranial cavity, and a cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) leak – a condition where CSF escapes through a small hole in the area surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Jodi spent 35 days in hospital where she had two further brain surgeries before being discharged.
Adjustment to life after surgery was difficult for Jodi and she struggled with the fact that people saw her as being weaker due to her facial paralysis. “When the individual symptoms started piling on top of each other to the point where I couldn’t function normally on a day-to-day basis, that’s when we knew something had to be wrong. “I went back to the doctor after my husband insisted that there must be an underlying medical condition that was causing all the issues. He seemed very concerned and his concern pushed me to make the appointment. “As far as the type of brain tumour, the final pathology was unidentifiable. Most brain tumours are made of brain cells – glial cells for example. My tumour was not made of brain cells or tissue, nor does it match anything in the medical text. “The neurosurgeon’s best guess is that while I lived overseas in the Middle East, I picked up some disease or illness which my body fought against, and similar to an autoimmune disease, eventually my body turned against itself and the tissue amassed and grew until it smashed my nerves and threatened my life.
“The surgery was scheduled to be one procedure that would last five hours and keep me in the hospital for five or six days. They used a mid-fossa approach, which means they went in on the right side of my head, cut out a piece of the skull, and went directly back toward the brainstem. “They removed as much of the tumour as was possible but because of the proximity to the brainstem, about twenty per cent of the brain tumour mass had to be left. “Due to complications from the first tumour, including the facial paralysis and CSF fluid leak, I ended up in the hospital for thirty-five days in and out of the neuro critical care unit and had two more brain surgeries in the fight for my life. “Life after the hospital was a huge change for me.
I’ve always been a conquer the world get things done kind of person and suddenly I found myself with no control or at least very little control over my own body, and certainly not much that I could offer to anyone else, including my family. “It was also hard to get used to the fact that people saw me differently. Normally I would think nothing of running an errand or going to the store. “In my new life, people saw a physically disabled individual who looked very different from the norm. This caused all kinds of interesting situations and often unkind responses. I struggle to understand it at times because I knew I was the same person on the inside and if anything, I was stronger than I had been before. “I knew you wouldn’t make fun of someone for breaking their arm, so it was hard for me to understand why people look at me differently because of my face. “I could never have imagined at the time but the journey with facial paralysis has been probably the most difficult of the whole brain tumour experience.

Wishing You All The Best

Take Care, God Bless

Russ

DooDad

Russ - thank you for sharing this amazing woman's story. It certainly made me realize I need a major attitude adjustment. I have so much to be thankful for and I lost sight of that for a while.

Thanks for helping me get back on track.

God bless you too.

Peggy