Gemma Miller, a 45-year-old teacher from England, underwent a normal eye test at her optician in September 2023. To her surprise, however, she was unable to read any letter in the eye chart in front of her. This worried her and her opticians, who referred her to an eye clinic. After an MRI, it was revealed that, just like her father before her, she had a brain tumor.
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With the tumor on her brain, Miller was unsuspecting of any issues with her health, as she didn't suffer from any symptoms whatsoever. It all changed during her eye test in 2023. "When I sat in the chair, I couldn't read any of the letters which I found strange as I thought I had good vision," Miller said, according to the New York Post. "I then had further tests, including a visual field test which I failed."
After further reviewing her eye, they referred her to an eye clinic for further testing. However, she ended up visiting a private ophthalmologist after "no one seemed to be in a rush" to help her at the clinic she was referred to. The ophthalmologist knew something was wrong "after only five minutes into the appointment," so they requested an MRI.
Two months after her eye test, and days after her MRI, on November 2023, the scan showed that Gemma Miller had a brain tumor. "In some ways, I felt relief, I kept thinking I was imagining the symptoms I was having," Miller said. "I was told surgery was really my only option to save the sight in my right eye as the tumor was growing."
Living With A Tumor
The tumor, which was surrounding her optic nerve, was then removed at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England in February 2024. She then recovered for months, thinking about her father who tragically passed years before of a brain tumor in 2018.
"The surgery was a success and 90% of the tumor was removed," Miller said. Doctors found after the surgery that Gemma Miller had a grade 2 meningioma. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, it is the most common type of brain tumor. She would need regular check-ups to monitor its growth. Should the tumor grow, she would need radiotherapy to treat it.
"The past year has been tough both physically and mentally," Miller said. "But I know I'm one of the lucky ones. It could have been so much worse- just like it was for my dad."
For Miller, living with a brain tumor is "hard to believe." However, she feels lucky that she can "live with it" at the moment without further complications.
