Senior Jordan Meyer recently moved here from rural Iowa last year, and is enjoying Metea’s larger pool of students. She’s involved in her local youth group, does Marching Band outside of school, and has recently undergone major surgery.

Q: You just underwent a pretty serious operation, do you mind talking about what happened?
It started in November when my family and I went on some college visits in Indiana. My family noticed I was walking with a limp in my left leg, even though there wasn’t any pain. Later on in the month I started getting really bad headaches, which was pretty unusual for me, but we thought it was just the change of weather. But by the end of the month I was getting these terrible migraines, so much so that I stopped acting coherently and my mom got so worried that she just ended up taking me into urgent care one day. When we got there they said that we needed to go to the emergency room immediately and then got sent to Central DuPage hospital where they did a couple scans and tests. The scans showed a big tumor in the center of my brain. We then got sent to Lurie’s Children’s Hospital and over the course of two and a half weeks, I underwent 3 surgeries that totaled to nearly 24 hours. They said that before the first surgery, had I not come in when I did, the tumor could have killed me. Fortunately, they said that the brain tumor was neurocytoma which is a rare, slow growing, benign tumor I could’ve ended up having for years.

Q: Did it turn out to be some type of disease or condition that triggered it?
Nope. It’s completely random and pretty rare. Only 1 percent of tumors are neurocytoma.

Q: Is there anyway to check for it in regular doctor visits?
You’d need an MRI scan to find it, but I’m sure if there’s any concern, you could schedule [an MRI] with your doctor.

Q: How’s your recovery going so far?
Everything’s pretty much back to normal. I thankfully didn’t need any type of physical or occupational therapy, and for the most part I’m cleared to do everything as normal.

Q: How has this situation impacted how you look at life?
I definitely value life so much more now that I’ve been through this. I’ve realized how fragile life is, and how quickly it can be taken away.