Beyond Brain Tumours

“I was not expecting this today”: Navigating the unthinkable at 15 years old | Part 1

• Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada • Episode 18

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In episode 18, we’re joined by Emma Garcia, a young athlete whose life changed at fifteen when a concussion eventually led to a brain tumour diagnosis and four life‑saving surgeries. During this conversation, Emma shares her journey through unimaginable challenges, the strength she discovered along the way, and the community that helped her heal. Her story is a moving reminder that brain tumours can affect young people too and why supporting the Brain Tumour Walk in your community helps survivors know they’re not alone. 

If you’d like to share your story and take part in our Beyond Brain Tumours podcast, we invite you to fill out this short form.

Learn more about Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada at BrainTumour.ca. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and Linkedin.


Podcast Mission And Medical Disclaimer

SPEAKER_01

On the Beyond Brain Tumors podcast, we aim to share personal stories from the Brain Tumor community and believe in creating space for people to talk openly and authentically about their lived experiences. We recognize that this may look and sound different for everyone. The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada. This podcast is intended for storytelling and community connection, and is not a replacement or substitute for medical advice. We encourage our listeners to speak with your healthcare team regarding your specific symptoms, needs, and situations. Quick question for our listeners. Well, let me tell you that when Emma was 15 years old, she was diagnosed with a large brain tumor and had four brain surgeries. Not your average teenage experience. Emma is a member of our pediatric support program, Brainwave, in Edmonton and is our 2026 Edmonton Walk Community Champion. Listen up, friends, as Emma shares her strength and resilience with all of us. Welcome to the podcast, Emma. We're really excited to have you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Life Before Everything Changed

SPEAKER_01

Um so yeah, let's just we'll dive into it a little bit and just talk to me a little bit about what you were like earlier and uh where you've come since your diagnosis.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so when I was diagnosed, I was 15. And at the time I was a big athlete. I played lots of sports, I loved softball, I loved ringette, I like wake surfing, I also really loved reading books, but also back then too, I was a really quiet person. I was really introverted, I had a more difficult time making friends. Um yeah, but when I was diagnosed, oh my gosh, it was like the craziest day because it's kind of a story. But so I got a concussion, I got a really, really bad concussion for playing a ringette. And so I went to the hospital and the ER nurse there or the ER doctor, she was amazing, and she was like, she basically like attacked me for an MRI. And so then, like maybe like a week or two later, I got this call for this like early morning MRI. And so then I go to the MRI. It's like at the crack of on too, so it's super early, and I go, and it was supposed to be like a 15-20 minute MRI, and I ended up being two hours. Oh my gosh, two hours in that tube. Yeah. And then um at the end, like like the the nurse, she was like, Okay, well, the doctor's not gonna want to see you today. And I was like, Oh my god, this can't be good, and of course it wasn't. And then Dr. Suster, who she's amazing, she was like, Well, there is something we were talking, and she's like, Well, there is something, and I was like, Oh boy, and I still remember like the grip of my mom's hand on mine and just being like, Oh my god, and then she's like, We found like a large saga brain tumor, and like it's like the size of a mandate orange, and I was like, Oh my god. And the first thing I said, I remember this so vividly was I was not expecting this today. Because like it was just like I knew it was gonna be something bad, but I didn't think it was gonna be something that's like that bad and that life-altering. And so it was just like crazy, but yeah, that was it's crazy. I think that was two years ago now, but yeah, it was like wow, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Two years ago, and absolutely uh one of the most life-changing pieces of news that I think anybody could receive, but especially at 15 years old.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, exactly, yeah, crazy. So the actual person who delivered the news was Dr. Sevester, and she's amazing, but she's also the surgeon who operated on me. Okay, yeah, yeah. It was her and Dr. Sorry, it was her and Dr. Meta who like actually like did surgery on me.

SPEAKER_01

Great, okay, yeah, that's great. A little shout out to them. That's uh totally is totally what we're about here. Um so you mentioned kind of books and being really active and everything. Um, so tell me a little bit about some of your favorite books.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh, okay. I'm gonna tell you, I I used to be I still love reading, but I used to be the biggest reader. My gosh, there was one summer where I think I read like 15 books. Like I just love reading. I really love, of course, Harry Potter. I mean, who doesn't love Harry Potter? Yeah, um, I was really I was a really big Percy Jackson fan. Oh my gosh, I love the Lunar Chronicles, I love like the Inheritance Games, like all those series I just love. Like I'm a really big book series person. Yeah, I love books.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's great. Um I'm trying to get my daughter into the Percy Jackson books.

SPEAKER_00

So uh my gosh, I feel like she really liked you. They're so good.

Headaches And Double Vision Clues

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Um, so yeah, tell me a little bit more about kind of the the symptoms that you had leading up to kind of your MRI. Because I I know that like there was the there was the the you mentioned the concussion that you got playing ringette. Um, but looking back, were there maybe other things that you kind of saw that would have led you to think that there might be something else going on?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so the main one was like the headaches that I got almost every day, and they were like brutal headaches that would last for like hours on end. I always had to take a motion to stop them, and then like that was very, very rough, very, very hard. But then also I had double vision for a really long time as well. Right. And I had to get like special glasses for it and everything, and yeah, that was pretty rough too. But yeah, those were like the main two symptoms I would say. Yeah, just headaches and double vision, for me at least.

SPEAKER_01

That's what yeah, and it's it's so interesting, right? With the brain tumor symptoms because they're all kind of general enough that um it doesn't flag as this is obviously what's wrong until maybe somebody puts all those pieces together and uh realizes like, yeah, these these things together are a bit of a concern.

SPEAKER_00

No, and that's the crazy thing too, and what's also kind of wild is so with the concussion, I ended up meeting this neurologist, and he was like, I saw him like specifically for the concussion, and he was saying how like he thought that I was just gonna have to live with exercise induced migraines for the rest of my life. Oh, which he and like I know he can't say like into my brain and like know like I had a brain tumor, but like even now I'm still slightly annoyed by that because like it was the furthest thing from exercise induced migraines, like it was a massive brain tumor, so like yeah, it's kind of crazy looking back on that moment because it's just like oh my god, he couldn't have been more wrong, right? Like, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and I mean I I fully understand that the medical community, I mean, they they deal in averages, right? And so yeah, kind of what you see uh thousands of patients and what kind of you know, maybe you get one or two brain tumors, but maybe you're gonna get 50 or 100 exercise-induced migraines. And so, like they really do lean into kind of what the what the most people will probably be experiencing, but at the end of the day, yeah, 100%. Um, I I exactly I hear what it what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00

No, well, that's the thing to what you were saying, like about like most of the time, like 99.9% of the time, it's gonna be something that's like normal and like what things that like most people have, but like no one you never go go into something thinking that it's gonna be the worst possible option. Like for me, like I never thought I was gonna have a tumor. I thought, like, yeah, I truly also believe maybe it was exercise induced migraines because like your brain just didn't think of the worst option all the time, you know what I mean? Right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it was the same for me. I also experienced double vision before my diagnosis of brain tumor, and I thought it was I thought it was uh my contact lenses that I just got a new prescription for, right? So it's like it's never it's usually the kind of the most obvious thing is the thing that we lean into, but yeah, um at 18 years old, the last thing that I thought it was gonna be is a brain tumor.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, yeah, no, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Um so yeah, so the con do you remember anything about the concussion um that you got playing ringet?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, let me tell you, it's crazy, it's a crazy story. So this is in a tournament in Calgary, I believe. And this was in the gold medal game, by the way. And also I was not to brag, but I was one of the captains of a ringette team. So, you know, I'm kind of like more of a flashy player out there, and I still remember like this girl, she cross-tecked me from the front, and so we were skating and she goes like cross-checks me from the front. I go flying back, my head literally like renegades, bounces off the ice, and like I just hear every go, ooh, and I start like immediately I start like bursting into tears because it hurts so bad. And then I go off the ice and I can't play the rest of the game because also like my vision's really, really bad. I can't see, I'm like hearing like ringing in my ears. It's like everything's kind of like crazy, and so I couldn't play the rest of the game. And yeah, I still remember like being like like walking back with my coach, and then my mom came and I was like bawling my eyes out in the dressing room, and like I had to get like change out of my equipment, and just like at the end of the game, I remember like I had I walked I actually walked the ice like wearing a helmet, but like my shoes because like I couldn't play for the rest of the game, and yeah, I remember that it was so crazy, and just like everyone was like, Oh my god, like are you okay? Because you know, like I'm like a very valuable asset to the team, but yeah, it's like it's just like Connor McDavid going down, right? Like he's but it was so crazy, and I grew up. I think she ended up getting like a four-minute major for that for that too, because like it was just like it's such a rough and crazy move. And ringette, ringette can be a rough sport, but it's not like hockey where it's like kind of part of the game, it's like fighting isn't part of the game, and like I'm not a very like petty person. I so I wasn't gonna fight this girl. Plus, like I had a question too, so you know, I was just like, it was a crazy moment, but I remember it so vividly because I just like it almost happened in like slow motion, you know what I mean? And it was just so insane. Like, yeah, I remember like it was yesterday.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was crazy. It's ri it's really interesting if you want to kind of zoom out again, like even further a little bit. Like, if she didn't do that, then you may not have necessarily had that kind of symptom and kind of had that touch point where then you got checked out and got your MRI. So maybe you send her a really nice fruit basket or something, right?

SPEAKER_00

Like Yeah, and then maybe someday. Yeah, yeah. But that's so funny because I've actually talked to my parents about that before. Like this whole journey, like the concussion really started, like the whole like cascading effect of it, like the whole like domino effect of like without the concussion, I would have never known about the brain tuber. Right. I would have never gotten surgery, and I would still be to this day like suffering from headaches and being in pain all the time and like having all these problems. But like, yeah, you're totally right though. Like, really, I should be kind of thanking that girl in a way, because like she, yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I don't know. I mean, I'm uh I'm not suggesting that, I'm just saying that I mean there is another kind of perspective to look at it, right?

SPEAKER_00

And so, yeah, no, exactly. Yeah, okay.

Shock And Finding Real Support

SPEAKER_01

And then so, yeah, just I mean, um, it's ridiculous. Um so yeah, I mean, when you got the diagnosis, and for you to kind of hear what they're saying, um, and then say the words, I was not expecting this today, that's that's pretty that's of course, I don't think anybody would expect that kind of news um on any given way.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Yeah, no, it was insane to hear that. And like I just remember like when when Dr. Sester told me those words, like my mom was gripping my hands so tightly. I just remember this feeling like, oh my god, like my life is about to change and not for the better. Like, my goodness. Yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Just that there's so like so many unknown challenges, I think, go along with a diagnosis like that, right?

SPEAKER_00

No, and do you know what's crazy is like no one warns you, and no one like tells you, like, hey, you're gonna have all this, like you're gonna suffer a lot, you're gonna go through a lot of pain, you're gonna go out, like you have to like, it's almost like you have to figure it out on your own, but like no one warned me that this is gonna happen. Like, I got like zero notice of like all the crazy things that were ever gonna happen with this, like, yeah, it's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and and unfortunately, with brain tumors specifically, um, for for the community that knows, I mean, there's over 120 different kinds of brain tumors, and then based on the different kinds, and based on where they are, and based on kind of the individual, how old you are, and um all of those factors can be extremely different. Um, if you line up a hundred different people who have uh all have brain tumors, it can be a hundred different outcomes, and so that's I think what's the biggest challenge with with brain tumors specifically.

SPEAKER_00

No, exactly, and that's the thing too. Like, you made a good point. Like, everyone is different, and so everyone's gonna have a different experience, and also everyone, like I said, I've said this a few times, but it's like if you broke your arm, you broke your arm. Like, there's that that many different ways to break your arm, like you know, it's fine, it's gonna take a minute to heal, but it's better. But when you break like your brain, first of all, everyone's brain is different, everyone thinks differently, everyone feels things differently, everyone is just different, of course. But it's like no, no two people are gonna heal the same, no people, two people are gonna have the same emotions, and it's just like it's so crazy because you really feel like you're kind of on this island by yourself in a way, because no one else has experienced this, no one else has had the same experience if they've even had brain surgery, and so it's like it's kind of crazy, like you just really feel like this like feeling of like just like being alone and just like isolation almost. So that's at least that's how I felt. Like when I found out, like I was like, oh my god, like I knew no one else, no one else, my friends and my family, and if like anyone who I knew like had brain surgery, I ever had a brain tumor, and so I was just like in total shock, but I also just knew like I was like, How am I gonna tell people this? Like, how am I gonna like let my friends at school know how am I gonna tell my family about this? Because it's like it's so crazy, like it's like too crazy to process, like you know what I mean. It's like how am I gonna tell everybody about this?

SPEAKER_01

Like, yeah, it it's yeah, it's one of the biggest things, right? Um and so, and especially at that age, uh, with your with your friends specifically, but also your family, yeah. Um, like how how do people react to that? And how do people support you through that? Um, and I mean that's a big reason why Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada exists, is to make sure that anyone going through a brain tumor knows they're not alone.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's one of the nice things too, is like, especially through like Brainwave, like I have really felt, and like my support group as well, they've really helped me feel like I'm not like like I said before, like on this island by myself. Like, I really do feel supported, I really do feel like like I'm not alone. I've like through like like my girls at my group or whatever, we're like all really good friends, and like they're just so nice and so kind. And I feel like through our shared experience, we've really like come together and we've really like united together. And like with Brainwave too, like I've done Pumpkin Kins After Drug with them. I've gone to like the Elks games with them, and like I just really feel like I'm not alone, and they've really done a good job of making me feel like hey, I like you're not by yourself, like hey, you have supports, and it's just yeah, I'm very, very, very, very beyond grateful and appreciative for them because without them, like I don't know where I'd be. Like, honestly, like right, yeah, yeah.

Four Surgeries And A Shunt

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, so let's go into a little bit more about kind of your your operation. And so um, so you're diagnosed. Um, so you went in and you you started your surgery process, and I know that you had four surgeries, which is bananas, yeah. Um and so you're so just really quickly, so your tumor was a Sega tumor, um, which is super rare and caused by tuberous sclerosis.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah. Okay, which is a super, super rare genetic condition that like point whatever percent of people have, like it's a very extremely, extremely rare genetic condition.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. Um, so that's just it's you're that special, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right, I know. Like, don't be jealous. That's a brand like yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

So so you had four surgeries. So can you lead me through a little bit of that timeline?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's kind of funny because you know, you don't go into like this whole like process of surgery. Like, I thought it was gonna be one surgery, one and done. I really can't complain, but it was not one and done, it was four. So it was like, yeah, because it was a massive tumor, and like you know, you can only operate for so long. So it was like two craniotomies, and then also like there's like problems with like leakage and stuff, and then finally it ended up the shent in my brain because I had like a tube coming out of my head for a while, right? But then eventually I just ended putting the shent in to help with the pressure in my bra in my head and everything. So I was in like extreme immense pain, and so we had to like fix that. And so the fourth surgery was putting the scent in, and I still have the shent in to this day, and I actually like last time, and they have to adjust it too every now and then. So last time I got it adjusted was I think August or September is when I got last adjusted. Okay, and yeah, yeah. It's kind of crazy too because when they adjust it, I feel like like a cyborg, like a robot, because they put this like a scene to your head, there's like magnets involved. It's like, oh my gosh, it's so crazy. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So how long did it kind of what was there like a standard time between each surgery?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I don't really think that it was kind of like for the first surgery, like it was actually supposed to be on April 30th, I believe, of 2024. Then they pushed it, they moved it forward to April 26th, which I at the time I was just like, oh my god, like no thanks, but like, you know, whatever. Like it's yeah, can't really complain. But then in between the first and second surgery, so I think it was like a couple days apart, and then like they want to see what I was doing, so they did another one, and the fourth one was like shortly after. But like I spent a total of three weeks in the hospital. Oh wow, which didn't really think about it. Four brain surgeries for only three weeks in the hospital is kind of crazy. Yeah, I really thought like I had no idea how long I was gonna spend in the hospital, but I thought maybe it'd be like like a month plus. No, it was three weeks, which is really, really crazy. Wow, but my parents also took work off too, so and they said like that they would care for me when I'm at home, which they did, which is probably why I got to leave a little bit earlier. But yeah, over the course of three weeks, four brain surgeries, which is like wow insane.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're just just knocked it out. You just get it all sorted, get it all done. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_00

No, yeah.

Rehab And Feeling Like Yourself

SPEAKER_01

Um, so yeah, um, so tell me a little bit about your recovery then. So three weeks in the hospital, you have four brain surgeries, you get a shunt put in, you get home. What is like what does your life look like?

SPEAKER_00

You know what's so funny? I remember the day I went home so well because so I hadn't seen him. So I have this pet dog, his name is Sully, he's a golden retriever, he is like the love of my life. I love him so much, and so I hadn't seen him for three weeks, and he was a puppy still at the time. So, like when I first when I went for my surgery, he was like fairly like small. But when I got back, like when I got home from my from being in the hospital, he looked so much bigger, and I was like, Oh my gosh! And we actually have a video, my mom has a video of like me coming home and like me being in the garage and like seeing Sally for the first time. He loses his mind, he gets so excited, and yeah, I was just honestly really happy to be home. I was really happy to see my sister. Just I was really happy to be like back at my house. I was so happy to like sleep in my own bed again because like hospital beds are like not the most comfortable, and so it was just nice to be able to like be in my own space, my own room. Like it was just yeah, it was the best. I just loved being home. I was just very relieved to be home.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. No, I get that. Um, and so then um, did you have to do any like physical therapy?

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh, yes. I did like so much OT, it's not even funny. Yeah, yeah. Tons of OT. I had appointments every week, felt almost like every other day I had appointments, like it's so crazy. And yeah, just like a lot of like physical therapy, like mental therapy, because my it was just a different time too, like your brain is just like not there almost. Like I was a whole other human being. It's crazy. Well, you can probably can relate to that too, because like you had your surgery, but like it's so crazy. Like, you're just at like a whole your brain is a different part than your body, and like you have to like kind of bring them back together in a way, like, oh my gosh, it's just in yeah, it was insane. Yeah, like nowhere's gonna describe how it felt, like, honestly. And that was for how many months? Let's think April, May, June, July, August, September, October, remember, December. Like 10 months it was like that. I just felt like a whole other human being. Yeah, and it wasn't until sorry, I'm going off on a tangent a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

No, that's all right.

SPEAKER_00

It wasn't until um it was over Christmas holidays, and keep in mind I'm napping like any chance I can get because I'm tired all the time. And so I went down for this one nap, and then I woke up and it was like it was like I have my old personality back. I felt like my old self. I was like, oh my god, guess who's back? Like, it's like old Emma, and I was so happy to be back, and I got my personality back, I got like my humor back, I got like my energy back. Like it was just like such a lovely day because like I got everything I was missing back. I hadn't been myself for like 10 months, which when you think about it, that's crazy. And so I got that part of me back, and I was like, oh my gosh, like welcome back! Like, yeah, it was so nice, but yeah. And since then I had like that same personality, like I haven't had like any like issues with like being like how I used to be, like for those 10 months, like that really like dark. I honestly the best way I can describe it is just like really like dark and like just very like dark, horrible, sad. It was like it was like grieving, you know what I mean? I was just in a very, very bad place, but it is such a blessing to be out of that era of my life because like oh my god, it was horrible. So yeah, I'm glad to be out of that now.

SPEAKER_01

No, exactly. Um, and I I I experienced a very similar thing um in my recovery, and people would come and visit me and be like, what, like, wow, what is what has happened to you? Um because I was also like, yeah, pretty out outgoing and like always with a quick joke and kind of very active and things. Um, and I was not that at all after the surgery. Like it was very difficult for me to interact um and kind of follow a conversation, or like um yeah, I was I was I was kind of a dull version of myself, I would say.

SPEAKER_00

Um I was a little me then. Oh my gosh, so funny that was literally me. Honestly to God, I was like a whole other human being. And it was like I still remember like I'm I'm a very like humor is like my love language. I'm a very jokey person. I love cracking jokes. I love like being funny. I'm very like positive, optimistic. And I still remember like like being in the hospital, and like me and my dad were very close. He would always love cracking jokes and like making each other laugh. And he was like trying to make me laugh, like trying to tell me jokes, or like trying to tell me things to make me smile. I was like giving him nothing. I didn't smile, I didn't laugh. I was just like, I wouldn't even look at him because I was just like it's such a crazy different time of my life, and yeah, what a blessing it is to be out of that now. Like, honestly, like I really am grateful for it every day because it was it was such a hard part of my life, but I'm glad to work through it now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well, and that's it. I mean, I think that uh it sounds like you really did the work and you um you got yourself through it um through 10 months of OTPT and uh probably a lot of naps.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, naps every day, Ben. You don't understand, it's crazy. And even now I still nap a lot. Like I probably have like three to four naps a week, probably. Like I love napping. I don't know, I just love sleeping. Like I love sleeping.

SPEAKER_01

That's okay. I think I saw an article online that said uh people who regularly nap add up to six years of their life, and so it's something I'm committed. I'm a napper as well. I'm committed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it is. Okay, I'm glad. Yeah, because napping is the best, and it's like the best way. Like the other day, it was like maybe it was yesterday, it was like rainy and gloomy out. And I was like, Do you know what? I'm gonna nap the afternoon away. And then I did, and it was so fun. Yeah, yeah.

Routine MRIs And Hospital Anxiety

SPEAKER_01

So, um, is it do you have like are you do you go for regular scans or kind of what's your treatment plan from this point forward?

SPEAKER_00

So from this point forward, I get like routine MRIs like every six months or like once a year, which is good. Like, honestly, it's better than like so like after like as soon as you come up from the hospital, it's like you're home, but you still have all these appointments, you still have all these things to commit to, and so it was like routine MRIs, like I felt like every week, or like there's like a million appointments every week, and now thankfully it's not like that, and now I have like routine appointments like every six months to a year. So, like the last MRI that I got was like maybe a month or two ago, and then the next MRI I'm gonna have to have is like six months from now. So it's nice because I don't know about you, but I really like I'm so grateful to have like the technology of MRIs, but I can't stand being an MRIs. Like for me, it's so hard. Every time I go there, it's so hard for me. I just feel like I have to like hype myself up. I have to like listen to the like and like fun music on the way there because it's like I really it's really hard for me to go back to the hospital and like face those demons of like a couple years ago. It's really really tricky for me. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like every time I go, I go back to the hospital, it gets ever so slightly easier because I feel like as I'm recovering, as I'm healing, so is like that part of me that's like has such a hard time there, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

So but again, right? Like I think it's the best tool that we have available to see inside your brain, right? And so exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I really, I really shouldn't can't complain. I really like can't complain because like honest to God, we are so lucky to have this technology because we would have never known, you know what I mean? We would have never known we had brain tumors like oh my gosh, yeah. We have to really be grateful for the technology, that's right.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think we can be. I don't know, I don't know if we need to be, but we can be.

SPEAKER_00

I think I think if we find like a happy medium of both, of like complaining and gratefulness, I think that's good.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think recognizing that what you've been through is a is extremely hard and continues to be extremely hard, um, while at the same time celebrate the fact that you are having to deal with things that are hard and kind of have that privilege of dealing with things that are hard. Um because the the alternative is not really all that much fun.

SPEAKER_00

No, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

So while you were in the hospital, do you have any kind of entertaining stories?

SPEAKER_00

Do you know what I'll tell you this? Most of my hospital stories, like 99.9% of them, are negative or sad. But I do actually have exactly three that are kind of funny. So I remember I had like my nurse everybody, every day, every morning, she'd be like, hey, like what month in it, what month is it, and what year is it? And I was and I every time I'd say February 2025. Keep in mind it was April of 2024, and so it was like every time we were just like, Oh yeah, there she goes again with it February, February, February, but it's like it was April 2024, and I was so convinced that's February of 2025, and it was just yeah, it was crazy. I also another thing too is I was also very, very convinced and under the impression that I was in a Mexican hospital. That like I was in Mexico and now we were in like a Mexican hospital, and so like I still remember like talking to my parents and even like, yeah, the Mexican hospital. And they're like, What are you talking about? Because we were literally in like the Edmonton Celery Hospital, but it was yeah, I was so convinced that we were in Mexico. Oh my goodness. And then my third and final story, and it's not funny, but it's just like a kind of a nice thing, is that my dad, because my mom stayed with me like for the whole time, like she did not leave the hospital once. But my dad would visit me every day because you're only allowed to have like one parent stay with you full time. So my mom stayed with me full-time. My dad would come and visit every day, and every day that he'd come visit, he'd always bring me this massive tub of popcorn with a lid on it. And every day I like lay on my bed, I get the tub of popcorn from him, and I just inhale it like there was no tomorrow. And yeah, it was those are like my three actual like good or good slash funny memories in the hospital.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, those are great, yeah, and hilarious. I don't I have no idea where Mexico came from. Honestly, though. I don't know if anybody spoke Spanish in the like in the hallways or like that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00

Like, that's crazy.

Part One Closing And Part Two

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's super funny. Okay, well, I think we'll uh we'll end part one there. Join us for part two of our conversation of Beyond Brain Tumors with 17 year old Emma Garcia from Edmonton, Alberta, as we discuss how she stays active, positive, and motivated. All to come on the Beyond Brain Tumors Podcast.