‘A hard road to recovery’ - Kilkenny woman's life after brain surgery

Kilkenny woman Julie Meaney is full of positivity and is grateful to be alive following surgery for a brain tumour last March.

The 48-year-old is sharing her story to raise awareness about the importance of following up on any signs or symptoms, even if they appear to be insignificant at the time.

“I fell at home in the bath on February 28 and went to work the next day as normal, I thought nothing of it,” she said.

Julie explained that 13 days later on March 13, she became unwell in work at the SOS, where she has worked for the past 22 years as a care assistant.

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“I was working that morning in the house with another staff member and they phoned the manager saying something wasn’t right I kept repeating myself, my speech was starting to get slurred and I was kind of slipping off out of consciousness.

“A manager came and told me to go home and wanted to bring me home but I wouldn’t and I refused help and said that I was fine, and I was, I was grand for 10 minutes and then 10 minutes after I wasn’t. I didn’t go home, I went from the SOS house to the supermarket to do my shopping and did my shopping. I am told I met two family members from Ballyfoyle and they said they were really concerned thinking what is going on but I refused help from them as well.

“I phoned my husband during that morning and he knew that there was something not right, he knew that I had had that fall so he came home straight away and rang our own GP and said the way I was, like I had had a stroke, my voice was nearly gone.

“My GP said to take me straight out to the Accident and Emergency Department at St Luke’s Hospital, they were ringing ahead and that I must have had a delayed concussion from the fall,” said Julie, adding that she had no signs or symptoms before the fall.

“I don’t remember going to St Luke’s Hospital. Straight away I was put into a head brace, they knew straight away there was something up. I was sent for scans and a few hours later it came back that there was a large mass on the brain, it was 5.8 centimetres by 5.1 centimetres, it was quite big.

“When I fell two weeks earlier it had caused a build up of fluid and it was pressing on the brain, only that I had the fall, I would have died, I wouldn’t have known. Usually they grow silently.”

Julie is sharing her story in the hope that it will help others to watch out for warning signs.

“They are more common that you think, I didn’t know anything about them before.

“I had no signs or symptoms. I will say the year before that I did have two episodes of vertigo; people have vertigo. Now you can link it and think yes it was related and I had a bit of dental pain. There were little things but I didn’t know.”

Julie is full of praise for the Irish healthcare system and the medics who cared for her.

“They were wonderful, from the time my husband Tommy made the phone call to the GP, he told him to take me straight into the hospital and checked in with him in the evening and St Luke’s were fantastic from the time I went in, I was so well looked after. Paul Cotter and his team looked after me in St Luke’s and Kieran Bolger, he was a neurosurgeon and his team looked after me in Beaumont Hospital.

“I went in on Wednesday, March 13 and I had surgery on March 19, I was sent to Beaumont on the Monday by ambulance and I had the surgery the following day.

“I have some recollection of the Paddy’s Weekend, I always loved Paddy’s Weekend, I would be off in the tractors — I drive vintage tractors — and I have some recollection of thinking that would be my last. I didn’t think I would see another Paddy’s Day.

“There were little drifts of memories of different things over those few days. People came to see me from work, I remember very little other than I was so well looked after by my family and everyone in St Luke’s and in Beaumont.”

Julie describes her recovery as ‘a hard road’ but said that she was ‘never in pain’.

“I had the surgery on March 19, that was a Tuesday and I came home the following Saturday. It was a hard old road, but I was never in pain, after the surgery the pain relief was wonderful.

“I was seven or eight hours in surgery and I came back, I went down to surgery at 7.50am and I was awake at 4.20pm in recovery and I came back to the ward at 6.30pm and I was drinking tea.”

Julie describes having ‘good days and bad days’ during her recovery but was never in pain. “When I came home there was a support nurse rang from Beaumont every morning checking in.

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“I went back to work after three months and went back for three days, I went back on reduced hours and now I am back full time.”

Julie’s message is for people to get themselves checked out if they have any health concerns.

“Now when I look back I did have signs, I would certainly be saying if you are in any way in doubt go and have a check up, it only takes a few minutes out of your life to go and get a check up - go to your doctor, go to your nurse, tell somebody.

“Don’t be afraid, there is loads of help out there. Through all this I had attended Cois Nore, don’t do it on your own and take the advice you are given, take the time you need. I was very lucky, I have might with so many people along the road who lost loved ones and were left with disabilities and life-changing events.

“It is so real to me, my uncle, Peter McBride from Ballyfoyle, he died in 1958 with a brain tumour at just 29 years of age.

“I am really grateful to be alive, I’ll never complain again,” said Julie, adding that she hopes by sharing her story people will be more awareness of the importance of having regular health checks and following up on any health concerns.

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