A woman has been left with brain damage after she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour - 17 years after symptoms first appeared.
Emma Seasman, 38, first started showing symptoms of the illness when she was in her teens, but the cause of her problems was put down variously to PMT, depression and bipolar disorder.
Emma said: “I began having behavioural problems at 12.They put it down to being a moody teenager, PMT, but my learning ability had completely changed.
I’d gone from a very bright kid in primary school to losing all my concentration.”
As she got older, Emma found it difficult to form relationships and struggled with anxiety and stress which was put down to studying for her GCSEs.
At 16, she received a diagnosis of depression but her behaviour began spiralling further out of control.
She said: “ I was homeless for a while because my behaviour was out of control. I was really aggressive.
“I met my husband Chris when I was 18 and then had my first child Eavan when I was 20.
Emma’s problems only got worse when her brother died aged 23. Doctors believed Emma was suffering from trauma, but diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.
Although the medication she was placed on helped slightly, Emma continued to worsen and she started to hallucinate and have extreme panic attacks and feelings of deja vu.
“I forgot how to count at one point but was signed off work with a nervous breakdown,” Emma said.
“I was hallucinating, I was seeing things. I thought at one point Disneyland was being built in the centre of Liverpool.
“I had depression and anxiety still so I made another trip back to my GP. While I was there, I had one of these panic attacks and was completely out of it.
“He made me an appointment to come back in a few days and referred me for some tests because he was concerned my panic attacks were seizures.”
Medics gave Emma, from Litherland, Liverpool, a variety of tests which revealed the growth on her brain - the cause of her previous problems and seizures.
She was finally diagnosed with an Epidermoid Cyst tumour in November 2011 and it was finally removed in early 2012.
The surgery has left Emma with various problems but she began working for The Brain Charity, which supports those with neurological problems after she was unable to go back to her old job.
Emma now helps other people like her and tells people never to be afraid to come forward with unusual symptoms no matter what they are.
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