Renae Williamson will never forget the look on her husband's face after doctors broke the news to him. He was drained of colour and appeared to be walking in slow motions. Renae had just had an MRI scan "to be on the safe side" while trying to find the cause of her crippling headache. But as her husband Jared walked towards her in the hospital waiting room, her life and his changed forever."We b towards her. She didn't know what they had told him, but she knew it wasn't good newoth just looked at each and cried," she told MamaMia.As it turned out, her 'a migraine' was a tumour."I was told if I had left it another 24 hours I would be dead," added the 39-year-old, who lives in Australia.
Renae had been in the waiting room for a while, awaiting the results of the scan, when she started feeling sick. With her head pounding, she sent Jared to tell doctors that they were going home because she wanted to crawl into bed. But in the minutes that followed, she found out she would not be getting into bed as she had hoped. Instead, she was rushed to the emergency department at a nearby hospital. Days earlier, she had rung her twin sister Nicole, who suffers from migraines, to see if she had any suggestions on how to cure her thumping headache that she'd had four days straight. She described it as being annoying more than painful and usual remedies hadn't worked. Nicole suggested Renae contact her GP believing it may be a migraine, which is common in their family.
The GP suggested the MRI scan as Renae had never suffered such severe headaches before. But no one expected it to uncover she had a massive tumour - and that she had only 24 hours left to live. Renae spent the next five days in hospital having multiple scans while being monitored around the clock. Following an operation and 19 staples in the back of her head, the tumour was removed. But the worst was still to come. Renae was allowed home but was told not to do everyday tasks such as drive, cook or lift anything too heavy.Then five days later, fluid began leaking from the area she had been operated on and more surgery followed. She spent more than a week confined to her bed, unable to move without warning a nurse first.
This was the hardest of all of it," Renae said, writing on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover the cost of her medical treatment."I cried so much. I felt completely helpless. For the first time, I was scared and nervous about what was happening to me."It was then that Renae was given the devastating melanoma cancer diagnosis - despite religiously slathering herself in sun cream throughout her life. She was told it had no known primary source and had the Braves gene."In the words of the oncologists 'it has its foot on the accelerator,'" she said. It was suggested to Renae she takes a combination of drugs to 'buy her time'."How much? No one can tell you," she said."According to the oncologist 'some people live, some people die. We don’t know why some do and some don’t'."
And devastatingly a few weeks ago, another large tumour was found at the back of Renae's brain, along with three to four smaller ones. She was forced to undergo another operation to try and remove them, despite being told the treatment had been working and another tumour had shrunk to be almost non-existent."I was in the intensive care unit overnight and for much of the next day before being moved into my own private room again. I suffered severe and regular nausea and vomiting," she said. This is completely devastating news as there were no signs that my treatment wasn't working."The MRI scans were being performed less frequently as the tumours had been shown to be shrinking each time. It really feels like reliving it all over again from the beginning again."Cancer has not just had an emotional toll on the couple, but also financial. Renae was forced to give up her studies in nursing, sell their apartment and they cannot afford to go out and enjoy a meal. She also said they have maxed out their credit card and have just $5.25 left in their account."If we didn’t receive vouchers for the movies for birthdays and Christmas we wouldn’t be going out at all," Renae added on the fundraising page. But the one thing comforting Renae is the support of her husband, family and friends. And she says she has so much more living to do.