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Catherine Gladwyn, 40 years old, started experiencing moments of forgetfulness six years ago. It started from small yet significant things, like she would go somewhere to get something but would forget midway through what she was supposed to get in the first place. Then, Catherine’s situation got even worse, and her family started to worry.
According to The Sun, Catherine started to forget her daughter, Chloe, and her childhood memories. That’s when she was eventually referred to a gynecologist because they thought it could be related to an early menopause.
However, a routine test a year after she the first incident revealed that Catherine had been carrying a small tumor on her pituitary gland. After she had a surgery that lasted for four hours due to its complexity, memories of her daughter’s childhood all started to come back to her.
Catherine said, “I couldn’t picture anything about my daughter Chloe growing up, or what she was like. It was like all those memories had completely been wiped. It was really frightening. But the minute I had the surgery, where the tumor was removed through my nose, the first thing I thought off when I woke up was when she was about 18 months old.”
Catherine experienced hair loss and constant exhaustion, even though she was fairly active. But, she just realized how bad her memory loss was during an incident in the mall.
Catherine said, “I think one of the most significant times was when I found a brand-new denim jacket in my wardrobe and I thought Chloe had bought me a present or something. When I asked her about it, she reminded me that we had bought it together, just a few weeks earlier.
“The adverts would come on in the middle of a program and after 30 seconds I’d have completely forgotten what program I’d been watching. The most difficult thing for me, though, was not being able to remember Chloe’s childhood. I also completely lost my sense of humor. I really thought it was early onset dementia and I was terrified.”
Catherine was diagnosed with a Macro-prolactinoma tumor on her brain’s pituitary gland.
Catherine said, “It was difficult to hear, but I was glad to have a diagnosis. But it was also so difficult because by this stage, my memory was so bad, I was struggling to take anything they told me in.”
Catherine had to resort to neurosurgery because the drug that was prescribed to her, Cabergoline, to reduce the production of prolactin, didn’t really work. The doctors operated through her nose.
Catherine said, “As soon as I came around, I had vivid memories of her at about 18 months old playing in a little blue dress with a yellow body suit underneath and then I slowly remembered more and more. It was amazing.” However, her symptoms returned and became more of a daily basis.
Catherine had a gamma ray radiation to home on the specific target. The surgery involved drilling a helmet into her skull and gamma ray beams were focused on the tumor.
Catherine said, “It was horrible having the frame screwed into my skull, but it was just one dose, unlike conventional radiotherapy and I wouldn’t have to travel back and forth to hospital every day for treatment.”
Although her level of prolactin and her pituitary gland’s purpose had reduced, she was required to take a lot of drugs to maintain her hormone levels.
Catherine said, “I have to take Estrogen daily, a growth Hormone replacement by injection every night, as well as taking cortisol, a steroid hormone, twice a day. I have to double my cortisol dosage if I get stressed or poorly. But it is manageable and I am able to lead a fairly normal life.”
Because of her health issues, Catherine was given a new perspective on life and decided to leave her job and open her own business. She became a virtual assistant to businesses that needed help with administrative work. She was able to work remotely. Catherine is happy now.
Catherine said, “Everything I have been through has been really difficult, but it’s made me think about what I want to be doing and to just go out there and do it.”
