Seizure history
Treatment history
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 Hazel's story
Hazel moved to Swindon in 2000. Only a month into a new house and a new town, Hazel had a seizure in the night which threw her out of bed. The seizure was a 'grand-mal' seizure, which meant Hazel's limbs were flaying and her eyes rolling. A further seizure followed in the middle of 2001, and in late 2003 Hazel was diagnosed with a Grade 2 astrocytoma.
An astrocytoma is a type of brain tumour, and the low grade (on a scale from 1 to 4) meant that the tumour was slow growing and not malignant. Even so, this was to be a major life change. The tumour continued to grow, and was monitored until January 2005, when the time came to operate.
The tumour had nowhere else to go, and Hazel was suffering pounding headaches, aches when she turned or moved her head, nausea and lethargy. Prior to the surgery, Hazel started to lose her sight. The surgery, on March 31st 2005, was largely successful, but the expected return of the eyesight did not occur. Hazel underwent radiotherapy in June 2005, and part way through this another series of grand-mal seizures coincided with a loss of short term memory.
As a result of this, Hazel has had to give up work. She has lost confidence and a degree of independence. Her memory and sight are gradually recovering, but life is very different. Any confidence Hazel might gain through recovering sight is hampered by the lack of memory, and coping strategies for memory are hampered by an inability to read or operate basic equipment such as CD players, dictaphones and radios.
Despite this, Hazel remains upbeat, confident, intelligent and beautiful. Because of her self perception, she fails to see this, but she retains all of the charm she had before this tragic turn of events. We hope that she will recover her belief as she continues to make progress.
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