CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE July/August 2020 | Page 30

Juliana Vallee
I was seeing a natural path for a few months
in White Rock named, Dr. Davinder Bains. One
day in October 2018, he had put his hand over
my eye and asked my how my sight was and I
replied back “fine…”
In November 2018, I went to a routine optometrist
appointment with Dr. Lam at Iris Optometry. I
noticed my sight was getting quite bad, quickly.
I couldn't read labels and it felt like there was a
cloud or film over my left yet.
The optometrist noticed that something was not
“normal” and then referred me to Dr. Anderson,
an Ophthalmologist at St Paul’s hospital in
Vancouver. It took about a month to get in but
as soon as I did get in, he ordered me to get a CT
scan and MRI done.
Dr. Anderson had me come back in to refer me
to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Gooderham, at Vancouver
General Hospital. I had more tests done and he
confirmed that I had a tumor that was pressing
against my optic nerve. This was causing the
vision issues.
On May 14, 2019, I had undergone brain surgery
at VGH performed by Dr. Gooderham and Dr.
Thamboo, a ENT specialist. They took a sample
of the tumor. I stayed in the hospital for a couple
of days. I couldn’t see from my left eye. I had
nerve damage to the left side of my face. I was
in excruciating pain. What’s worse was, my eyes
were crossed. My left eye no longer tracked.
I went home and my kids saw me. They all
stared at me thinking why does mommy look
like that? My 3rd child, Noah, said “mommy, you
look funny”.
A couple weeks later, I was referred to the BC
Cancer agency at Surrey Memorial Hospital. I
had the worst experience of my life. At my
intake appointment, I had asked the Dr., from
his experience, did he think it was cancerous.
He had confirmed that…yes, he did believe so.
I felt like my world ended right then and there.
Everything turned white. I couldn’t breathe. I felt
light headed and had to lie back on the patient
bed.
That was a Tuesday. I still remember it so
vividly…the feeling of being nauseous and the
thought…that’s it.
The next few days were torture. I had night
sweats that soaked the bed as if I had taken a
shower, didn’t dry off and went to bed. I had my
mom and my children come to my bed every
night just so I had everyone with me. It was
extremely comforting to me as well as sad.
Thoughts flooded my head of what’s going to
happen to my kids? Who’s going to raise them?
Who’s going to take them to hockey?
Friday came along… my little one, Oli, was in a
hockey tournament. My phone rang and it was
Dr. Gooderham, my neurosurgeon. I stepped
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