My 'caffeine withdrawal' turned out to be a brain tumour

  • 3 months ago
An ex-addict was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour after mistaking her brain fog for caffeine withdrawal.

Abi Feltham, 36, started having headaches, nausea and brain fog but put it down to cutting down on coffee.

Now her tongue-in-cheek video diary about her hospital treatments have gone viral.
Transcript
00:00if you could find out when you were gonna die, would you? hi i'm abby and this week the doctor
00:04told me that the tumor in my brain is a grade 3 oligodendroglioma. and although research is not up
00:09to date and i am a unique human with an individual case, he thinks my life expectancy is gonna be
00:14about 15 years. when this year started out one thing that wasn't on my 2024 bingo card was
00:19getting a brain tumor, yet here we are! one moment i'm crushing pbs at the gym and celebrating four
00:24years of my recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction, the next a neurosurgeon is slicing
00:29into my skull and having a good old route around in my cranium there. as it stands we're currently
00:33waiting for the results of my biopsy to determine whether or not i need further treatment. in the
00:37meantime you better believe i'll be milking this for as much attention as possible and making brain
00:41tumor jokes left right and center. at least i know my poor health symptoms weren't all in my head
00:45after all, eh hat? when i first got i was a bit scared about the prospect of going on a cancer
00:49journey right now because it would be quite the inconvenience. i have so much care and support
00:53around me especially from my cheery golden retriever partner stef who balances out my
00:57cynical black cat ways. but the time has come for my second brain surgery. how am i feeling?
01:02strangely confident and taking each day as it comes. it's incredible how much my outlook on
01:06life has changed. last month i was wishing the days away and wondering what i was doing anything for.
01:11now i'm feeling immense joy when the kind nurse brings me a cup of cracked coffee and a packet
01:15of biscuits. like literally bouncing off the walls at a chocolate bauble because my ability to make
01:20simple choices for myself has vanished and another human being has done something nice for me.
01:24but there is so much out of my control. all i can do is love myself, love each day and take
01:29each challenge as it comes. oh and hope that my very nice genuinely very skilled neurosurgeon
01:34dr butterfingers doesn't drop my skull fragment on the floor this time

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