THE NEW YORK POST – Eight years ago, Megan Troutwine traveled to New York City to see her late cousin, Tony Martinez, who was living in Harlem.
“We had so much fun, just taking pictures and seeing the sites,” the good-spirited 33-year-old from Hudson, Florida, told The Post. “When you have family living there, your heart hits those streets differently.”
Megan Troutwine realized something was wrong after taking this selfie outside of Rockefeller Center. Courtesy of Megan Troutwine
While in Midtown, the pair visited Rockefeller Center, and Troutwine stopped to take a selfie next to the nearby reflecting pool and fountains on Sixth Avenue.
“I looked at the picture, and my eyelid was drooping,” Troutwine recalled. “I thought it was odd, so when I returned home, I mentioned it to my neurologist.”
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The doctor ordered an MRI, and on her way home from the scan, she got a call: They had found a benign mass inside her brain that was growing at an aggressive rate.
“I found out I had a meningioma,” which is the most common form of brain tumor, explained Troutwine. “This diagnosis, it is hard.”
Troutwine began treatment immediately at Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center. First, surgery was performed to remove the tumor. Then a follow-up procedure revealed the presence of another primary brain tumor — this one, a glioma.
Doctors informed Troutwine — now working as a health unit coordinator at Moffitt — that the tumor would continue to slowly grow, and that she’d likely require lifelong monitoring for her condition.
