{"id":4569,"date":"2020-05-15T16:38:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2020-05-15T16:38:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:38:45","slug":"junior-rediscovers-how-to-survive-after-life-changing-brain-procedure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4569","title":{"rendered":"Junior rediscovers how to survive after life-changing brain procedure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samantha Sewick<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Sailors&#8217; Log<br \/>\nMona Shores HS<br \/>\n1st Place Division 3, News Writing<br \/>\nPersonality Profile<\/p>\n<p><b>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity; reason for sketch is made clear early in story<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emphasizes fresh angle; individualizes person<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colorful, lively presentation; effective form\/style<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reflects adequate research, sound interviewing techniques from a variety of sources<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoids encyclopedic listing of subject\u2019s accomplishments<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Effective use of quotes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interesting; appeals to the emotions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper diction\/grammar<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Writer<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">On the morning of Jan. 4, 2019, Lily Fisher, then a sophomore, woke up like it was any other winter break morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">She showered, ate breakfast and prepared for the day. On this particular Friday, she was going to meet some friends to go on an ice skating adventure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">However, a headache started to ruin the fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Eventually, what she thought was a migraine became Fisher vomiting and becoming dizzy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cMy head started throbbing, and I started to lose my balance,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even walk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Her mom called her doctor, whose advice was to stay home and wait it out. Only her mom wouldn\u2019t take waiting for an answer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">It was then that her mom decided it was time to head to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cIt was the scariest experience of my life,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cOne minute, I was fine. Then the next, I felt like I\u2019d been hit by a truck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Once she arrived at Hackley Hospital in Muskegon, a CT scan revealed the truth \u2013 her brain was bleeding. So she was transferred to DeVos Children\u2019s Hospital in Grand Rapids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">When she arrived, surgeons put a hole in her head to relieve the pressure and drain the blood via a tube.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The next morning, Fisher had another procedure called an angiogram, which involved putting a catheter in an artery in her leg that travels up to the brain where images were taken.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">After what felt to her and her family like forever, Fisher was diagnosed with what\u2019s called an AVM, an arteriovenous malformation. This means the connections of veins and vessels in the tissue are abnormal and tangled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Diagnosed with AVM meant that Fisher would need to have a craniotomy, where part of her skull was removed to give doctors access to her brain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">On Jan. 10, surgeons made an incision from the middle of her head past her ear, removing part of the skull to gain access to the AVM. Using a high-powered microscope, surgeons removed the AVM, then closed her skull with a titanium plate and screws to coomplete the seveen-hour surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cI spent 15 days in the ICU recovering. I couldn\u2019t even wash my hair, and I didn\u2019t have fresh air,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cI felt so trapped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Once Fisher was released, her whole life changed. Her focus shifted from what she could do to what she now couldn\u2019t ever do again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cEverything from before is totally different,\u201d said Fisher, who is now in her junior year and preparing for college applications. \u201cI used to have 20\/20 vision, and now, everything gets blurry. The lights are another constant thought for me. I was always in choir, and I used to play the ukulele, too. Now, I can\u2019t even go near that wing because of the pitches and the way it affects my brain. It causes too much pain now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Fisher\u2019s life changed, but her surviving attitude did not. Her resilience shines through as she adapted her life to meet her newfound challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cIt used to be like \u2018Oh, I can\u2019t do that anymore,\u2019 so my life is totally different,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery day is different. Some days, I can listen to music in my car, and others, I can\u2019t even turn the radio on. I just go day by day now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Playing it day by day can be seen as an issue to most but not to Fisher. She makes the best of what cards she was dealt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">\u201cIt\u2019s a roller-coaster, you know, but I\u2019m not getting off,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cI\u2019ll keep riding it as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samantha Sewick The Sailors&#8217; Log Mona Shores HS 1st Place Division 3, News Writing Personality Profile JUDGING CRITERIA Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity; reason for sketch is made clear early in story Emphasizes fresh angle; individualizes person Colorful, lively presentation; effective form\/style Reflects adequate research, sound interviewing techniques from a variety of sources Avoids [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,63],"tags":[175,22],"class_list":["post-4569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","category-nw","category-personalityprofile-nw","tag-2019-20","tag-division3","post_format-post-format-image","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/08-Feature-Sammi.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/08-Feature-Sammi.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Joel Beeker","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/08-Feature-Sammi.jpg?fit=1301%2C1498&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1bH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}