 All
that Ann Quale of Mequon can remember about the seizure that struck
her "totally out of the blue" on the afternoon of Oct. 17,
2007, is coming groggily back to consciousness at about the same time
her two young boys got off the school bus.
Ann, 44, the full-time mom of P.J., 7,
and Willy, 5, had been refinishing a dresser in her garage. Nothing in
her health records, her lifestyle or her family history could have
predicted the sudden seizure episode. So when her husband, Peter,
arrived home early from work that day, he had no clue as to what was
happening to his wife of 10 years.
P.J. rushed to meet his dad.
"Something’s wrong with
Mommy," P.J. told him.
Peter wasn’t sure what to think as
P.J. described Ann’s symptoms.
"He said she doesn’t remember
this and that, and her lips are all black," Peter recalls. Ann
apparently had hit her mouth on the dresser as she fell during the
seizure.
Peter found Ann standing at the kitchen
sink, still reeling and confused. It had been a windy day, so Ann had
closed the garage door to work on the dresser. Peter guessed that Ann
had somehow been overcome by fumes from the staining chemicals. He
guessed wrong.
A call to the Poison Control Center
sent the Quales in another direction. After listening to Peter
describe Ann’s symptoms, the woman at the other end of the hot line
strongly recommended that he get Ann to a hospital emergency room. A
neighbor took care of P.J. and Willy, and the Quales picked up Ann’s
mother on the way to the hospital.
At Columbia St. Mary’s Ozaukee, the
Quales began a journey he describes as almost surreal. A CAT scan
revealed the source of Ann’s seizure — a tumor on the frontal lobe
of her brain.
"Basically, they told (Peter) it
didn’t look good," Ann says. "They told him I probably had
a year to live."
Peter, trying to absorb the shock of
the diagnosis, decided to keep that information to himself. "They
sent us home that night; it was the longest night of my life,"
Peter says.
The next morning, as the Quales were
trying to contact the family’s primary physician, a neighbor dropped
by and recommended they consult Dr. Arvind Ahuja, a neurosurgeon at
Aurora St. Luke’s Hospital in Milwaukee.
Within 15 minutes, they had an
appointment to see Ahuja that same day. At Aurora St. Luke’s,
magnetic resonance imaging technology confirmed the diagnosis. Ann was
suffering from brain cancer. She was immediately admitted to the
hospital.
"She had a big frontal tumor;
about 6 centimeters, bigger than an orange," Ahuja says. "It
was pressing on the brain."
Surgery was scheduled for the next day.
Ann, learning of the seriousness of her illness, did not question
Ahuja’s recommendation. There was no other option, she says.
"It all happened so fast,"
she says. "It was kind of a whirlwind."
Ann had to find a way to explain the
situation to her boys. "Mommy’s got a bump in her head,"
she told them, "and they’ve got to get the bump out."
Ann’s "bump" was a rare
form of malignant brain tumor known as oligodendroglioma, occurring in
approximately nine in every 1 million people. Most patients are in
their 40s and 50s at the time of diagnosis, Ahuja says. The cause of
the condition is unknown.
Until the seizure, Ann says she had no
idea that anything was amiss. There is no way of knowing how long she’d
had the tumor. Other than a few sinus infections, she had not been
sick for at least 10 years.
"It’s like a lottery ticket. It’s
just random," she says.
Ahuja surgically removed the tumor,
along with microscopic bits of brain tissue surrounding it in an
effort to prevent the tumor from returning.
Peter, meanwhile, kept watch in the
hospital’s surgical waiting room.
"It was pretty nerve-wracking. Of
course, a lot of family was there with us," he says.
Ahuja emerged from the operating room
with news. The doctor says he believes Ann "will do very well.
(The tumor) may return, but the chance is less than 5 percent over the
next 10 years."
At Aurora St. Luke’s, Ann says, she
was treated as if she were a member of Ahuja’s family. Peter was
encouraged to bring P.J. and Willy to visit their mother the day after
surgery. Nurses plopped the boys in office chairs and took them for
rides down the hallways.
Although Ann expected to be
hospitalized for four days, she was home just two days after the
operation.
Since the surgery, she has been
undergoing radiation therapy and chemotherapy and is resuming her
active lifestyle. She cooks, cleans, exercises, and she’s looking
forward to getting back to volunteering at the boys’ school, Donges
Bay Elementary. The Quales went skiing in Vail, Colo., in January and
Ann hopes to rejoin her hockey team for its next season.
"It’s been three months and I’m
still learning how to cope with it," Peter says. "I cope
with it by being positive. I guess you look at life a little
differently; you appreciate what you have."
The Quales are particularly grateful
for the outpouring of support they have received from family and
friends, which, Ann says, "would blow your mind."
She is coming away from the entire
experience with a renewed appreciation for the people she holds dear.
"Life is just not always what it
seems," Ann says. "Everything becomes more precious."
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