My name is Jackson and when I was 5, we learned that I had a brain tumor, called craniopharyngioma. It was exactly in the middle of my brain, my optic nerve was on top of the tumor and my pituitary gland was right below my tumor. I was extremely lucky and they were able to remove all of my tumor during a really long surgery, but I still deal with some lasting effects from the tumor and its removal. Because the pituitary gland had been disrupted, I didn’t grow for 2 full years! I’m a little shorter than some of my friends, but I’m starting to catch up now. Also, because of the disturbance to the optic nerve I have a slight blind spot in my left eye. It doesn’t bother me much – my body has adapted to it. I get migraines on a weekly basis, and sometimes I see things that aren’t there or letters and or numbers will move around. This can make some things more challenging, but I’ve learned to work with it.
Because they had to go through my brain to take out the tumor, some things are harder for me and my brain gets tired really quickly, so I have to take, what we call, short brain breaks to give it time to rest. Because of my tumor I struggle with reading. I prefer things like short informational articles. I also do a lot of things auditorily like have my computer or phone read things to me or I listen to educational videos. Instead of typing, I will often talk to my electronics and have them type for me. I really love math and science and I’m hoping to go into something related to one of them, possibly physics, when I’m done with high school. These classes can be a problem when numbers move, but I’ve learned to check my answers and sometimes I just have to wait to work on something until my head is willing to cooperate! At least I have a cool scar from my surgery!
I have a lot to deal with every day, but I try not to let it stop me from doing the things I enjoy. I play trumpet in our school’s concert band, pep band, marching band and jazz band. My absolute favorite sport I do is taekwondo and I have won a world championship in it. My butterfly is colored grey for brain cancer awareness.
Perfect Through and Through 