Posted on 08/31/2007 8:02:45 PM PDT by Coleus
Parents always say their children are angels, but it isn't often an unborn baby gets credited for saving her mother's life. Ella Stapleton, now 23 months old, did. Carol Stapleton and her husband Chad, of Loxley, tried desperately to have children. After a miscarriage and a round of fertility drugs, the couple rejoiced in early 2005 when they found out they were expecting. But in her 12th week of pregnancy, Carol Stapleton realized something was wrong.
"I went to read my Bible, like I do every night, and I couldn't see out of my right eye," Carol Stapleton said. "It was just all of a sudden. ... The whole middle of the page of the Bible was black." She called her OB-GYN that night, who reassured her that it was probably a migraine. But Stapleton, a nurse who has worked with cancer patients for the past 10 years, had her doubts. "When something's wrong or starts happening with your eye, there's something going on besides just a migraine," she said. The next day, her vision was no better. She went to an ophthalmologist that morning. The assistant put up the familiar eye chart with the giant E at the top of the page.
Stapleton couldn't see the E. "The girl didn't really know what to say," Stapleton said. The ophthalmologist came in after reviewing Stapleton's charts and results and delivered awful news: "He thought either I had a brain tumor or that I had a clot in my head," Stapleton said. An MRI soon confirmed the ophthalmologist's diagnosis. Stapleton had a brain tumor. Though not cancerous, the tumor was still dangerous. Called a meningioma, which forms from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, it was pressing against her optic nerve. Each passing day meant the tumor -- fueled by estrogen, which runs rampant in a pregnant woman's body -- grew a little bigger and restricted more and more of her vision. It isn't clear what causes meningioma to form, according to the Mayo Clinic. Doctors know that something alters cells in the membranes to make them multiply uncontrollably, but whether it's genetics, things in the environment, or a combination of both, remains unknown, the clinic states.
Because events were happening so fast -- this was only three days after the Bible page went black -- Carol wasn't able to consult with as many doctors as she would have liked to. Instead, she was whisked to the emergency room of a Mobile hospital and prepared for brain surgery performed by whichever neurosurgeon was on call that day. According to the Stapletons, the surgeon told her that he could do the procedure to remove the tumor, but there was a good chance that she would lose the baby and her vision in both eyes and be paralyzed on one side of her face.
She would also lose her pituitary gland, a pea-sized hormone-secreting gland that helps control growth, blood pressure, breast milk production, sex organ functions and thyroid function. "Something told me that I needed to call one of the other doctors in our group," said Carol, who works at Radiation Therapy Oncology in Fairhope. "I called him and told him I was in the emergency room -- it happened so quick, I didn't even have a chance to tell him what was going on -- so I said, 'I'm in here I'm about to have surgery; what do you suggest I do?' And he said 'You get out of the emergency room, and you meet me in my office in an hour.'" Stapleton hung up the phone, pulled out her IV and left, against medical advice. Back in Fairhope, Stapleton met with two doctors who practice in the oncology group, and within a day she was set up with a specialist in Memphis, Tenn., who had experience both in operating on meningiomas and operating on pregnant women.
That Saturday morning, five days after the Bible page episode, Stapleton and her family piled into the car, Tennessee-bound. Stapleton went under the knife on a Thursday morning at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. By then, she was blind in both eyes. The doctors told the family that if the surgery were perfect, it would end at 1 p.m., Carol's mother, Diane Koen said. "And so at five to 1, we were sitting on pins and needles when they called down and said the surgery was over. We knew that was a good sign." The doctors had removed a small part of Carol's skull to access the tumor and essentially pulled it out through the hole. The tumor was soft, which enabled the doctors to get all of it without touching her brain.
When Stapleton awoke from the anesthesia, she saw a plastic sandwich bag full of her hair on the table next to her. Koen walked in, took one look at her daughter and fainted. "She looked like a softball that's been hit real hard," said Carol's husband, Chad. But through it all, Carol heard a tiny, steady pumping sound coming from her belly. "They were checking her heartbeat," Carol said. "To hear her heartbeat -- I knew I was going to be fine."
A week later with a promising prognosis, the couple returned to Loxley. The last two trimesters went well, except for when Carol got stuck in an elevator at Thomas Hospital and had to be pulled through the top of it by firefighters. On Sept. 12, 2005, 8-pound, 7-ounce Ella Grace Stapleton came into the world via cesarean section. Carol Stapleton has regained her sight and returns to Memphis once a year for checkups. Doctors said that her pregnancy didn't cause the tumor -- which they guess had been growing for about five years -- but probably did save her life.
"He said that Ella saved me, because if I wouldn't have gotten pregnant, the estrogen in my body wouldn't have made the tumor get as big as it did, and the vision problems wouldn't have happened," Carol Stapleton said. "It's a miracle that I had her, and it was a miracle that I conceived her when I did. "She really is our little angel."
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What defines a miracle? One mother knows.
What a difference a second opinion makes.
Thanks, Lord Jesus!
Another example of bad journalism: He talks about how things happened so fast she never had time for a second opinion, and then he proceeds to recount how she secured a second opinion. On the phone, in 2 minutes and from a colleague of hers no less...
I am sorry but this story is just another example of how the media takes a bit of drama from somebody’s life and tries to make an epic out of it.
“He said that Ella saved me, because if I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant, the estrogen in my body wouldn’t have made the tumor get as big as it did, and the vision problems wouldn’t have happened,
I was listening to Vicki Thorn’s presentation on The Biology of the Theology of the Body, and she said they are finding repairative cells in women’s bodies after they have carried a son. Even if the son was miscarried, aborted or given birth to there are cells that are left behind in the mother. The deficiencies in the mother’s body that make her susceptible to certain illnesses, diseases, etc are countered by the Y chromosome in the cells left in her body by her son. God is such an astounding creator!
I think she got the exact same surgery she would have gotten the first time around, just a couple days later by a different doctor. There is only one good way to get to the base of the brain and the loss of the pituitary was just as likely in the second surgeon’s hands.
WHOO HOOO!!!!
I have a little boy on the way....good thing to keep in mind as he begins his noctural gymnastics.
If the tumor hadn’t gotten big because of the estrogen, it wouldn’t have been a problem. I’m glad she and baby both came out of it healthy.
Mrs VS
I’m with you. Lazy editor as well. Is there any wonder bloggers are gaining credabiliy over MSM?
The way I read the “facts” of this story, she would have been better off not getting pregnant at all!
I found that interesting and wondered....I was diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse shortly after I got married in my 20's. It is a heart condition that was detected in my grandfather when they did an autopsy and hereditary. So they checked me, since I was having chest pain. The general practitioner I saw was certain I had it, as he could detect it noticably just with a stethoscope. I lost my son at 6 months along, stillbirth. Just 1 1/2 yrs ago I was to a specialist with my girls (they are tracked regularly for heart issues) and they ran a test on me. The technician caught a 'glimpse' of the mitral valve prolapse through the testing but it was barely detectable. The Dr, after reading the results, said I was fine!! It went from detectable with a stethoscope to barely detectable with the machines. GOD! The Y chromosomes over 20 years!
When are you due? Keep me posted! I will be praying. I have a beautiful grandson that should, by all purposes and means, not exist. He and my 21 yo daughter have an awesome life testimony. Lord willing the Y chromosomes in her body will do repairing on her heart which has a different condition than mine. One of greater concern.
My sister had (has) a meningioma and had an operation 32 years ago.
Hers was firm and a bit of it was left due to the risk of brain injury.
Now she is having a number of problems probably associated with the pituitary and reduced thyroid function (the doctors aren’t sure).
The latest bout led to a dramatic drop in body temperature, many days in the hospital and then resulting in partial amnesia and temporary dementia.
She seems to be stable now but will never leave the convalescent/rest home where she now resides.
Her daughter, born a year after this operation ended up being estranged from her mother for most of her life until the latest problems which began early this year.
Now my niece has taken on the role of guardian and doing it long distance as her home is 2,500 miles away from her mother.
She makes me proud and a bit ashamed at the same time as I am 550 miles away and am not able to do this for my sister. In a way I’ve always thought that this same tumor split them apart and caused my sister’s unusual behavior and failures at raising a child; now, it seems to have brought them back together where nothing else would have healed the breach.
All this statement says is that the pregnancy made the tumor get bigger faster. A responsible journalist would have pointed out that a slow growing tumour would have killed her. If in fact that was the case.
A remarkable story, but that last bit was just too much trauma for this poor woman! Gove love her!
That’s supposed to say, God love her!
December 1st. A little one in time for Christmas, seems pretty perfect. Thank you for your prayers....we both appreciate it.
NP! anytime!
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