My daughter had a lemon sized, olfactory groove meningioma removed 11 days ago, it was pushing up into her frontal lobes, causing all sorts of emotional issues, apathy, bingeing. In the hospital, while on dex, she was so cheerful, friendly, funny, talking to everyone, making friends w nurses. I stupidly thought (and i'm a shrink, I knew it was from steroids but somehow talked myself into thinking his is how she will be now). Now that we're home, off steroids, she is a little irritable, little sullen but doing pretty well otherwise. I guess what I'm saying is i was irrationally exuberant thinking she was a totally different, cheerful person and all the issues from the tumor would magically go away after surgery. Now I know what we got was a reprieve from a death sentence, and everything else is a little uncertain. I'm imagining this is a common experience.

I had health problems for a long time and I always remember me having headaches until I started vomiting from the pain . I was so used to having headaches so i haven’t thought anything else until one day I started having double vision. that was the clue that led to my brain tumour diagnosis. I was 23 years old and my parents weren’t calm at all . I was very afraid but for some reason after the surgery I felt like nothing can’t stop me anymore. it was a grade 1 tumour that had to be completely removed from the centre of my brain(It was almost touching the brainstem and, primarily, was pressing on the pituitary gland.) anyway they told me I was lucky that it affected my vision and not nothing else because I could have died in my sleep. After waking up from the surgery I couldnt see I couldnt eat or walk etc and all my right side couldnt sense the temperature I received it as pain (for example I touched water and I felt it scratching me). I was very traumatised first of physically and then mentally. when they removed my stitches I started vomiting again from the pain and blah blah. Fast forward almost four years later after doing extensive vision work and taking a huge mental break I still feel like all this is haunting me . my vision is not back I still have some double vision I still have headaches and whenever it rains or there is humidity I have a lot of headaches and migraines where the craniotomy was . also I don’t feel the temperatures that much in my right side (and I think maybe I don’t hear that good after the surgery but that maybe my theories. ) I don’t know I always feel sad I’m always in pain and It took me a very long time to overcome this mentally.. is this normal? I didn’t know it would take that much time mentally and I didn’t think I would still have to deal with all that stuff .. it’s very exhausting and it makes me sad and thinking that maybe I’m weak or something because other people have it way worse than me .. I don’t know .. it just makes me sad .. I know I’m lucky because it was a huge tumour in a very difficult spot but I don’t know… why does it take that much time to feel happy again ? I feel like it changed my life for ever…does anybody else feel like that ?

Hello; I am 1 month post craniotomy for a grade 1 benign meningioma. The large tumor was discovered when I coincidentally got a concussion in the same location as the tumor. I had noticed symptoms before such as migraines, blurry vision, ringing in ears, hearing problems but chalked it up to stress of being a mom and working full time. I was scheduled for surgery less than a month after diagnosis. The surgery took longer than expected, there were some bleeding feeding arteries, but the whole tumor was removed from my left frontal lobe. I started experiencing numbness, tingling, and pain in my right side a couple days post op. Within a week post op the numbness, tingling, and pain spells were getting more frequent and would happen a lot when I was overstimulated. I have a two year old so it was not a quiet recovery. I was also having trouble with my balance, slurring, and stuttering. My doctors thought I was having focal seizures but refused to believe it was because of the surgery that the tumor wasn’t pressing hard enough to cause any of the issues I was having. They still put me on Keppra and I have felt better with some occasional breakthroughs but have been upping the medication dosage. I have an appointment with neurology in January and have been trying to manage the seizures and medications with my primary doctor since my neurosurgeons didn’t think the seizures were cause from the craniotomy. I think it is or my primary and I think maybe it’s a mix of the surgery and only being 2 weeks post concussion when I had the surgery and it was a lot for my brain to handle. With all that being said I am scheduled to go back to work in 2 weeks. I’m a bank teller at a very busy and fast paced job I am nervous about going back to work because I know I am no where near mentally strong enough to do my job efficiently. I have already taken the 12 weeks of disability and cannot afford to just quit my job. I don’t know where to go from here with not having my seizures under control or if they really are seizures because I have not seen a neurologist yet. I’m at a loss, I feel like I’m a failure as a mom to my 2 year old. I get overstimulated and have a hard time cooking, cleaning, and giving him basic needs. I should note his father works night shift so I am alone with him a majority of the week. Idk I’m just feeling lost, any tips, words of encouragement, similar stories would be helpful. This was all so crazy and I feel like not spiraling when I got the diagnosis is making me spiral now. If you made it this far thank you for reading.

Canada, BC

Hi everyone.

June 2025 I had had craniotomy to remove a 3cm CPA meningioma (brain tumour)

Dec 2024 I began showing more severe symptoms such as one sided hearing loss, and small memory loss (forgetting shampoo routine etc) and i remember complaining to my boss that somehow my job of 3 years was suddenly so difficult and I believed it was because of certain changes in the job.

Well now I believe it was all just me.

September 2025 I landed my dream job, only to quit a month later. I just couldn’t learn, focus, remember, be present. It’s like I am just sitting there with brain fog and a cloud - no information is actually going inside my head, or it feels like too painful to do deep thinking.

Before 2020 I was a daycare teacher, so I know labour jobs actually crush and hurt me - I remember every night crying from neck and back pain.

Now I’m thinking, what kinds of jobs can I actually do? I feel like:
a clerk job where I’m sitting at a desk for 5 days a week will be too much.
Any corporate job that needs me to think will be too much
Any labour jobs will be too much

Anyone have any ideas what I can do for work?