Though she was forced to delay school for a bit after her initial surgeries, Lauren says a Collegiate Crescent Fund Grant from the Tri Delta Foundation has helped keep her on track.
Headaches are probably nothing unusual for the typical college student, but the pain Lauren D., Eastern Illinois, felt upon waking one morning in September 2008 was something different. "It was concentrated in the lower back region of my head," she says, noting that the pain was very intense. She went to the student health center only to be told it was a tension headache.
With a prescription headache reliever, Lauren was able to numb the pain, though it never really went away. A few months later, noting the pain was still there, her mother insisted she go to her regular physician. On New Year's Eve 2008, she found out it was a cyst growing on her skull. A surgery was scheduled to remove it.
Less than a week later, however, the cyst was leaking and it was determined she had an infection. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the cyst, once thought to be growing on top of her skull, and actually grown into her skull as well. In January 2009, when most students are getting ready to go back to school from winter break, Lauren underwent her first surgery: a cranioplasty to remove the portion of her skull that contained the infected cyst. After the surgery, Lauren was outfitted with a PIC line in her arm, a semi-permanent IV to pump her full of antibiotics for about a month.
After the infection had cleared, Lauren soon had her second surgery, to place a plate in the area where the skull and cyst were removed. This should have been the end of it, but over the summer, Lauren started feeling pain again. She woke up one morning to a familiar leaking and went to the ER. The neurosurgeon there determined she had another infection, and the plate she'd had inserted needed to be removed to let the infection heal. She was on oral antibiotics for more than two months.
At just 21-years-old, Lauren has been through much more than the average college student, yet her goal through it all is to remain just that: the normal college student. Though she was forced to delay school for a bit after her initial surgeries, she says a Collegiate Crescent Fund Grant from the Tri Delta Foundation has helped keep her on track.
The grant gave me an extra boost, a reminder that even though I went through all of this, I can still be successful and continue with my plans - just on a new timeline," she says. "Thanks to the Foundation, I know I have people - sisters - behind me that I've never even met, motivating me to stay focused on my goals."
Lauren's next surgery is scheduled for August 2010, when a plate will again be inserted to cover the hole the cyst and skull removal left behind. She plans to graduate in winter 2010 or spring 2011 with a degree in elementary education.
