Susan Blanas’ pregnancy disguised brain tumour symptoms, but her only thought was for her baby

WHEN Susan Blanas woke up from the brain surgery to remove the tumour that was threatening to send her into a coma, she had just one question for doctors; is my baby OK?

WHEN Susan Blanas woke up from the brain surgery to remove the tumour that was threatening to send her into a coma, she had just one question for doctors; is my baby OK?

Mrs Blanas, 26, was 18 weeks pregnant when a golf-ball sized tumour was found at the back of her head.

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For the first nine weeks of her second trimester, she woken each morning with excruciating migraines — so strong she would collapse upon standing — but was told repeatedly by doctors this was an unlucky symptom of pregnancy hormones.

But now, with the Preston woman given the all-clear by Royal Melbourne Hospital neurosurgeons, Mrs Blanas was this month looking forward to meeting her little love that helped get her through the most torturous four months.

“She’s going to be such a special little girl. I just can’t wait to see her and have her in my arms,” she said.

The beauty therapist had never had a headache before the morning migraines appeared at the end of her first trimester.

“I’d been to the doctor each week and I remember explaining that I felt like my brain was too big for my skull. It was pulsating and painful,” she said.

“Everyone put it down to the hormones.”

Susan Blanas and husband George await the birth of their daughter this month, after her successful brain surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Picture: Andrew Tauber

In mid January, a chance appointment with a new GP at the clinic offered a new set of ears, and she sent Mrs Blanas for an MRI.

Mrs Blanas couldn’t say a word when she matter-of-factly told she had a brain tumour on her cerebellum.

She sat slapped in shock as was given its measurements; 5-6cm.

She sat in silence as she watched her GP write the referral to a brain surgeon.

“I didn’t sleep that night,” she said. “Could I keep my baby and stay alive?”

RMH Director of Neurosurgery, Associate Professor Kate Drummond said scans quickly showed they had to move fast.

The tumour was so big, the risk of Mrs Blanas becoming unconscious from pressure on the brain was real.

Mrs Blanas pleaded with them to save her baby, but her unborn daughter was still six weeks away from reaching the grey zone, where it’s even possible for premature babies to survive.

“We couldn’t wait any longer. She was already getting symptoms of pressure on the brain, and as the pregnancy proceeded it was only going to get worse,” Associate Prof Drummond said.

Five days later, on January 30, the RMH team — led by Associate Prof Drummond and her neurosurgeon colleague Professor Andrew Kaye — worked to complete the difficult surgery in half the usual time to minimise risks to mum and bub.

To complicate the surgery, it wouldn’t be safe for Mrs Blanas to lie on her stomach because of the pregnancy.

Instead, surgeons propped her half on her side so they could still access the back of her skull, but put no pressure on the baby.

Susan Blanas was only worried about her baby when she was diagnosed. Picture: Andrew Tauber

“We had to choose drugs that were safe for the baby,” Associate Prof Drummond said.

“We were constantly doing ultrasounds to make sure we still had a heartbeat.

“This is not an operation where you want to take a long time.”

As soon as Mrs Blanas woke up in recovery with husband George, they wheeled the ultrasound wand to her bedside to show her that her baby girl’s heart beat was as strong as ever.

“I started feeling her kick for the first time in hospital,” she said.

“It was so nice to feel those movements after what I’d been through.”

A biopsy showed this was a benign tumour, a pilocytic astrocytoma that has most likely been growing for the past decade.

The latest test suggests all the tumour was removed, but Mrs Blanas will undergo a more rigorous scan once she has finished breast feeding.

She is due to give birth in the next two weeks.

“To have the best outcome possible through surgery, to recover so well and still have my baby at the end of it; I’m so, so lucky.”

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Originally published as Susan Blanas’ pregnancy disguised brain tumour symptoms, but her only thought was for her baby