Here is a little about me. My name is Meghan Sanchez. I moved to the LA area about 12 years ago. I was busy building my life here in Burbank, Ca when in 2019 at the age of 34, things took an unexpected turn. I was working as a full time makeup artist at a pro beauty supply store and I kept having light headed spells. The three years prior I had no symptoms except daily painful migraines. At least at the time I thought they were migraines. They felt like lightning bolt headaches. They came on quickly and caused severe pain on the left side of my head, right behind my left eye. I was so blessed that my father, who is a physician, had me see a Neurologist in Glendale and from there it was suggested I get an MRI after getting an early diagnosis of cluster migraines. This is where things began to change.
They recognized a mass deep in my brain. They could not diagnose it so they sent me to Keck Hospital of USC to their neurological dept. After viewing my MRI they told me it was nothing to worry about and only a vascular malformation, most likely caused by a syndrome I was born with called Klippel-Trenaunay Webber syndrome, that causes abnormal vascular growth. The doctor also told me it was much too deep and too large to be an aneurysm. I suggested that since I was there I get a CTA scan. A scan with dye contrast. This was what revealed that I did have an aneurysm and it was rare and very large. 11 to 12 millimeters large. An average aneurysm being only about 2 to 4 millimeters in size. It also had 2 arteries extending off of it. It was the rarest aneurysm any of the doctors had seen. It was also deadly. There would be only a 10% chance of survival if it burst, and even then I would be severely mentally impaired and possibly paralyzed on one side.
So after getting lots of angiograms and second opinions, my family and I made the decision to go to The Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona and get my brain surgery done by the world famous aneurysm brain surgeon, Dr. Michael Lawton. I was rushed into a 12 hour open brain surgery and underwent an aneurysm repair and bypass so the repair would not cause blood loss to the parts of my brain the arteries coming off the aneurysm were connected to. The surgery was very successful and I was very lucky to be alive.
I felt a lot of emotions and was surprisingly not afraid and very calm throughout the process. It was a calm that I felt was divine. I was taken care of by God and had a feeling of surrender to whatever might happen. I also felt that the timing was fortuitous. If it had been discovered the year after, the pandemic had gripped the world and my surgery may have been put off indefinitely. I could have been waiting to die. I also felt that while so many do not have the access to the excellent healthcare I received, that I was beyond lucky and blessed to have been helped and so quickly. I hope this inspires people to always follow your gut and to advocate for yourself if you feel like there is something wrong. I could be in a very different position now if I had not spoken out about what I thought was annoying migraines. Now I am migraine free and very lucky to be living life.
