Heidi Krause is working on getting a degree in teaching, which keeps her busy. Unfortunately, Heidi had to slow down in 2011, when she discovered she had a brain tumor while on vacation.
“My sister was living in Indonesia at the time, and I went with my parents to visit her,” Heidi said. “We were on an extremely remote island to go diving, when I had a seizure during the night.”
Her sister thought Heidi was having a bad dream and tried to wake her up. When she couldn’t, she realized something might be seriously wrong.
“My mom thought maybe I had been poisoned. Luckily, my sister’s friend, who is an EMT was with us for the trip. He told them it was a seizure, and walked everyone through what to do next,” Heidi recalls. “The next things I remember was waking up and him asking me a lot of questions. He thought that I would be okay, but recommended that I see a neurologist when I got home.”
About a week later, in Hong Kong, Heidi suffered another nocturnal seizure. This time, her family took her to the hospital for a thorough examination.
“The physicians did an MRI and other testing to see if they could find the cause of the seizures,” Heidi said. “They told us the next day that I had a tumor on my left frontal lobe. They thought it might be benign, but recommended I fly home immediately for more medical attention.”
A friend recommended Dr. Stephen Shogan, a neurologist who specializes in brain tumors and cancer. Heidi scheduled an appointment the day after arriving home. A week later, she had a craniotomy to remove the tumor.
Dr. Shogan was unable to remove the entire tumor. He referred her to Dr. Alan Feiner and Dr. Kathryn Howell for radiation and chemotherapy to target the tumor that was left.
“I had to do six months of radiation, which was really hard for me, because it meant I had to put my schooling on hold for a semester,” Heidi said. “But, I was back the following semester and picked up where I left off.”
Today, Heidi has to take Temodar, a chemotherapy drug for brain cancer, once week every month, and have MRI scans done every three months to look for new growth. The radiation and drugs are working, and the tumor’s size has reduced. Heidi is finishing up her semester of student teaching and looks forward to continuing on with her life.
“For me, finding out about the cancer was never a death sentence,” she said. “I asked what we needed to do next and looked at it as pragmatically as I could. I plan on continuing down the path I was on before my diagnosis and continue working towards fulfilling my dreams.”
The Rose “Surviving Well” calendar is a 12-month calendar highlighting our cancer services, physicians and inspirational stories from our patients. Heidi is our survivor for August.
