Brain Tumor Survivor Starts Support Group on Delmarva

Copyright © 2007 - WBOC-TV 16, Delmarvas News Leader, FOX 21 www.wboc.com

11/26/2007

SALISBURY - "After surgery, I thought it was all over. But it was only the beginning."

Sandra Wyatt learned how to move, how to talk, even how to write again - the mixture of pain and patience all part of a long recovery from brain surgery five years ago.

"It was like, the whole right side of my body was going numb," remembers Wyatt.

Three weeks before Christmas in 2002, she learned she had a brain tumor. Doctors scheduled surgery for the day before Christmas Eve.

"We had christmas early that year, not knowing if I'd ever have another one," said Wyatt.

On the day of her operation, doctors were unprepared for what they found.

"They'd take out a layer of tumors, and there would be another layer of tumors, and they'd take out that layer, and there would be another layer."

Fifteen tumors total, although doctors were only able to remove twelve. A difficult surgery, but afterwards, the tears came easy. Her husband says the operation basically removed Wyatt's emotional filter.

"If something happens that frustrates a normal person or hurts their feelings, she feels it ten times as much," said Greg Loew.

The two met in the middle of Wyatt's recovery.

They fell in love, despite her tumors, despite the second date at the hospital.

"It was to me like hearing well, I"ve got brown hair and freckles," Loew said. "It was just a feature of her. It wasn't a problem."

Wyatt says what she calls "tumor humor" kept her going. She cracks jokes easily, poking fun at her situation.

"They replaced the lining of my brain with a lining of a cow's heart, so that i wouldn't get more of these tumors," she said. "I say the only problem I have is occasionally I have the urge to moo."

But it's what in her heart, not in her head, that makes her story so special. Wyatt speaks with tumor survivors all over the country. Now, she wants to bring more support to the Eastern Shore - closer to home, closer to her five kids, and to a daughter who became a stranger after Wyatt's personality change became too much."

"It's the hard part," Wyatt said, tears filling her eyes. "I felt like if we'd had the support we'd needed, and the children understood and I'd understood, then my family wouldn't have been torn apart."

Wyatt's giving others what she missed: the support to learn to live again. Her group, "Hope With Support," will help other brain tumor survivors find the path to recovery. It's the first of its kind on Delmarva.

The group plans to advocate for brain tumor awareness in Salisbury and across the peninsula, leaving a legacy that will live on in the hearts and the minds of survivors.