Routine doctor visit saves woman who had just 24 hours to live
With just 24 hours to live, mum-of-two Renae Williamson was saved by a routine visit to her GP.
This visit would set off a chain of events that would lead the 40-year-old Perth woman to give up her home to afford the combination of medical treatments and drugs required to keep her alive.
Ms Williamson had suffered a strong headache for four days, believing it was a migraine. On the advice of her twin sister Nicole, Ms Williamson went to her GP who sent her for an MRI.
“Little did we know, our lives were about to be changed forever,” Ms Williamson posted on her GoFundMe page.
A few days later, the MRI revealed that Ms Williamson had two nodules in her brain. She immediately went to the emergency department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth with her husband Jared and received a shocking diagnosis.
“We arrived at the emergency department and we were prioritised quickly,” she said.
“I was shown one tumor in my brain that measured 2.2cm,”
“It had caused so much swelling of the brain that if I had left it another 24hrs, I would likely be dead,” Ms Williamson said.
She was sent to the hospital’s high dependency ward for five days, in preparation for brain surgery to remove one of the two tumours at St John of God hospital in Subiaco.
On July 21, 2017, her neurosurgeon successfully removed the whole tumour. The dramatic procedure left 19 metal staples in the back of her head and Ms Williamson recovered in hospital for another 15 days.
When she finally came home from hospital, she rested for only five days before events took a turn for the worse. Ms Williamson began leaking cerebrospinal fluid from her wound and returned to hospital for another nine days for a procedure.
“I cried so much. I felt completely helpless. For the first time, I was scared and nervous about what was happening to me,” she said.
At this time, Ms Williamson was also diagnosed with melanoma, in addition to her existing brain tumours.
“It was also the time we found out that I had been diagonsed with melanoma, with no known primary (source). I was told I had the Braf gene,” Ms Williamson said.
Ms Williamson was put on an expensive combination of medical treatments and drugs, to manage both her brain tumour and melanoma.
Desperate search for dad and three young kids camping in poor weather
Aussie student’s holiday nightmare as she’s detained in Bali
“I have had to give up my studies in nursing. We’ve had to sell our apartment to afford the cost associated with fighting or rather living with melanoma,” she said.
“We cannot afford to go out. Even just for simple meals. If we didn’t receive vouchers for the movies for birthdays and Christmas we wouldn’t be going out at all,” she said.
Ms Williamson started a GoFundMe page in April, to raise money for “medicines, associated MRI and PET scans and for some help with costs of living”.
Presently, she has exceeded her fundraising target of $7,000 and hopes to continue to raise awareness about melanoma.
