Mother, who thought her allergies were flaring up or the pain was caused by a problematic filling in one of her teeth, learned that the cause of her constant headaches and tingling was a massive tumor

The young mother of two said that she first experienced the symptoms after her second child was born. The 36-year-old woman initially thought it was just intermittent numbness and tingling above her right eye. She later discovered that the cause of her constant headaches, tingling, searing pain and numbness on the right side of her face was due to a massive tumor in her brain. The doctors told her that the mass woven through or pressing against several nerves in her brain was a trigeminal schwannoma. According to the health officials, it’s a skull base tumor that is usually not cancerous.

The 36-year-old woman from Ohio, Jessica Scheeser, told CC that when her test results were in, she just froze and didn’t know how to process it. The young mother of two also said that she reportedly lost her father to esophageal cancer when she was 7 months pregnant with her first child.  Scheeser then called her primary care physician’s assistant. The doctors told her that the mass woven through or pressing against several nerves in her brain was a trigeminal schwannoma. According to the health officials, it’s a skull base tumor that is usually not cancerous.

But, in order to alleviate her constant pain and discomfort, and to prevent the tumor from growing and causing further damage, it would require immediate attention, CC reports. The 36-year-old mother then met with Dr. Pablo Recinos, a world-renowned neurological surgeon with the Brain Tumor & Neuro-Oncology Center. 

Jessica Scheeser reportedly told CC: “That man is a godsend. I don’t know how I would have gotten through any of this without him. I know that skull base neurosurgery is his specialty, but his effect on me went so much beyond him being a surgeon. The care and consideration he showed me, my husband and my mom, from that very first appointment, was incredible.”

Dr. Pablo Recinos reportedly said that the best option of the young woman was craniotomy. Craniotomy is an open brain surgery in which the surgeon removes a piece of skull to access the impacted area and then the surgeon replaces it afterwards.

Dr. Pablo Recinos reportedly said: “She was already having symptoms, and the tumor was pretty sizable, with multiple compartments that extended from her intercranial space toward her brainstem.”

The young mother also said that she first experienced symptoms in 2018. Unfortunately, Scheeser thought her allergies were flaring up or the pain was caused by a problematic filling in one of her teeth. 

But, her symptoms intensified into searing pain, especially when she would yawn or chew. Scheeser also said that she tolerated the symptoms for nearly 3 years. In late 2021 she met with her doctor, who suspected she might be suffering from a trigeminal schwannoma.

An MRI confirmed the diagnosis. According to Dr. Pablo Recinos, the surgery would require him to ‘go deep’ into her skull, where the tumor was embedded into one of several bundles that form the trigeminal nerve.

Dr. Pablo Recinos also said: “The tumor arose from just one of those bundles, so we would need to push the rest of them aside to reach it. Our goal is to take out this huge tumor, not damage the brain and leave the rest of those fiber bundles intact. It’s pretty complicated.”

Luckily, the 9-hour procedure proceeded smoothly and Dr. Recinos removed the tumor. His work was supplemented by a device that used ultrasonic waves to break up hard-to-reach sections of the tumor into smaller pieces that were then suctioned out.

According to Scheeser, a follow-up MRI revealed no further signs of the tumor. In less than one week, the young mother was home.

Scheeser returned to work in a few weeks, got back to her workout routine and is enjoying time with her family. Right now, she has none of the tingling or searing-pain spasms that dominated her life for so long, per reports.