A Second Chance
By Juliaacv
@Juliaacv (57058)
Canada
July 22, 2026 4:48pm CST
Have you ever considered what you would do, how your life would change if you had a brush with death, and lived?
Well I have.
You see 52 years ago today (that was a l o n g time ago) I had a brain tumour removed. Yes, they did brain surgery back in those days.
I remember most of what happened, as they did keep me somewhat coherent, as they had to ask me to wiggle my left foot or raise my hand and so on. They did not want to take away anything that I was using so to speak.
I remember how very cold it became in the room during the surgery. I remember the chatting and conversations that the staff had early on in the surgery, the songs that they sang, the music that the brain surgeon requested to have played. It was not a bad experience.
When they found the tumour my family was advised that it was large and that it had started to win already. I had stopped being able to keep food or liquids down, my bowels had stopped working, I was seeing double. The surgeon explained that I was hours away from half of my body shutting down and then death would be imminent.
But.....my mother asked if there were any experimental drugs that could be used. And yes, there was but it wouldn't likely help me but might help their research. They don't sugar-coat that kind of news.
Well, it did hold the tumour from growing larger and I lived to see my surgery day and survived it.
And how have I used this second chance that I was gifted? Just like any young child would. I grew up, I never ever forgot my trust that I had in what my parents told me which was what the doctors told them, and tried to live my life to the fullest.
I have always found the silver lining to every dark cloud.
But, I also take time on July 22nd, every year to think back and to give thanks, and to recall all of those little tiny details that I recall so clearly, when I cannot even tell you what I had for lunch on Monday. 
But how would you treat a second chance at life? Would you be grateful or bitter that you are not the 'same' as everyone else and need to take meds every day of your life?
But how would you treat a second chance at life? Would you be grateful or bitter that you are not the 'same' as everyone else and need to take meds every day of your life?9 people like this
10 responses
@Melanie_Marie (2473)
• St. Clair, Michigan
17h
I would be grateful. You’ve survived something terrifying yet amazing. And I have to take meds every day of my life too. No biggie, right? Lots of people do.
You were meant to be here, survive, and share your story of hope. X
4 people like this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
6h
I agree, no biggie these days.
I used to really keep it private years ago, different times-different practices.
Thank you, I appreciate your kind words, we are all here to share our stories, good, bad or misguided, we are all here together to live and figure out and support each other through it.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
6h
@sallypup Honestly I was used to being used as a pincushion at that point. And I was in a teaching hospital so lots of my sticks were painful. I never understood why that nurses told me what she did, she was obviously not a pediatric nurse, they never spoke to us so frankly.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
18h
I don't mean for it to sound scary, I was just an innocent child and how my parents and the hospital staff treated me made the difference.
I remember on my birthday, which was 2 days before the surgery, I had to have a special test.
A big nurse from the OR came to get me in my room.
In the Children's Hospital, it was 3 floors and there was an underground tunnel leading to the main hospital across the street. The nurses would line up us patients on our stretchers and form a train and they would all get at the end and sing and push us all together to the other end.
The OR nurse that came to get me asked me if I knew what was going to happen, and she told me that they would give me a big needle in my neck in the vein and put dye into my veins that would carry to my head and they would sue a machine to see what was discovered. I was scared then. In reality, what happened, was they stuck an IV in my hand to put me out, and although promised my parents that I would not cry, I remember tears falling from the outer corners of my eyes as it hurt so much. I was very very skinny at that point. I remember breaking the promise to my parents not to cry. That was the worst of it all.
2 people like this
@sallypup (69519)
• Centralia, Washington
13h
@Juliaacv You were just a kid. Of course you cried. I would have cried and even now I say nasty things when nurses come at me with needles. That nurse telling you you would get a needle in your neck was pure evil. She should not have said that.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
19h
You are too kind.
I remember on September 17th when I saw the surgeon in his office for a follow up appointment, and he told me that he may have taken a thin slice of my brain when he removed the tumour, but that I would never ever use those brain cells. And in my childish mind I thought to myself.....nope I sure won't use them cuz they are in a jar in a lab at the Children's hospital. And sitting in class, my mind would wander and I'd look around at the other kids and think to myself, you got all of your marbles but I might not.
Sick sense of humour even at that age. 
2 people like this
@Traceyjayne (12394)
• United Kingdom
19h
Oh my goodness .....you just never know what people have been through for you ! What an amazing story. Huw old were you when you had the operation ?
You certainly appreciate life and it's good that you remember what happened every year ....
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
19h
I was admitted to the hospital 2 days before my 12th birthday and discharged 2 weeks following the surgery.
I had a 'soft spot' in my head where they removed a portion of my skull and replaced it with a steel plate.
During that time my mother set up a bed for me on the main floor in the dining room, it meant no stairs and that I would be close to the bathroom.
I was not able to run, ride my bike or do anything that could cause a fall. When school began in September I was not able to ride the school bus, my mother had to drive me there and pick me back up and it was about a 10-12 mile drive. I wasn't able to go outside for recess or take gym class.
And in those days they shaved the entire head, so I was stared at and fun was poked at me. You see 12ish is the age when boys notice girls, and this girl always wore a scarf a hat or a wig.
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
18h
@Traceyjayne Honestly, I wasn't brave, I literally did not know anything else, just what my parents told me. My parents told me that I had a little operation on my head, nothing more, and I did not question it. I remember when I was out in the hallway coming from the playroom down the hall in the hospital, my head was all bandaged up and a lady in the hallway, a visitor, asked me if I had been in a car accident. I looked blankly at her. Of course it was about the second day that I could see, as my eyes were swollen shut for 3 days following my surgery.
It taught me not to judge a book by its cover and to listen, listen really hard to what is and what is not said.
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (12394)
• United Kingdom
18h
@Juliaacv oh my goodness ....you were incredibly brave .....truly a fascinating life story ...
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (211055)
• United States
17h
That is really a second chance. I am glad you were able to live your life and make the most of it. Do you get regular scans.?
1 person likes this
@moirai (2956)
• Philippines
8h
Remarkable story. Glad you made it and still here and able to share it.
I would be grateful.
As you said in the comments, we get a chance every time we get sick and recover... I would go further and say we get a second chance every time we wake up in the morning of a new day.
None of us are really the exact same, I guess. We just take what we are each given and try to make the best of it.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (137794)
• Marion, Ohio
3h
That would be scary and very glad they could remove it. I have never really thought about it
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (57058)
• Canada
19h
We get a second chance every time that we get ill and recover.
You are a survivor also.
I am grateful and I am able to find joy in the simple things.
I remember being so ill and having to lay so still in the hospital that I would literally count the holes in the ceiling tiles. And I would be subjected to do that for hours at a time.
1 person likes this
