{"id":9773,"date":"2025-12-15T10:57:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/?p=9773"},"modified":"2025-12-17T21:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T21:34:44","slug":"everyone-told-me-i-was-just-another-stressed-teenager-it-was-a-brain-tumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/15\/everyone-told-me-i-was-just-another-stressed-teenager-it-was-a-brain-tumour\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone told me I was just another stressed teenager \u2014 it was a brain tumour"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Katie-Jo\t<\/div>
Katie-Jo Bartlett and her mum, Stacey, say they were dismissed by doctors (Picture: Katie-Jo Bartlett \/ SWNS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Katie-Jo Bartlett looked down at her GCSE exam paper in June 2022 she saw colours dancing across the page.<\/p>\n

Months earlier, she visited her GP and described the issues she’d been having with eyesight, as well as symptoms of nausea, back pain and struggling to walk straight.<\/p>\n

But the teen, from Newcastle, claims her problems were dismissed, with medics telling her she was experiencing common teenage exam stress.<\/a><\/p>\n

A day after she’d struggled through that exam, Katie-Jo, now 19, collapsed in a toilet, and was blue-lighted to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, in Cramlington, Northumberland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From there, she was given deverstating diagnosis of a brain tumour, which doctors have been unable to remove. Katie-Jo was ‘terrified’ by the news.<\/p>\n

‘Being so young, I didn’t know what having a brain tumour meant for me,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me.’<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Katie-Jo\t<\/div>
Katie-Jo needed immediate surgery for the tumour (Picture: Katie-Jo Bartlett \/ SWNS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Doctors<\/a> diagnosed Katie-Jo with severe hydrocephalus – an abnormal build-up of fluid in the brain – and she was rushed to Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle<\/a>, to drain it.<\/p>\n

A subsequent MRI and CT scan showed that Katie-Jo had a brain tumour which was causing the leak.<\/p>\n

Since then, Katie-Jo has had multiple surgeries to secure a shunt (a piece of thin tube) to relieve the pressure on the brain.<\/p>\n

Sadly, her tumour can’t be removed, but the teenager undergoes MRI scans every eight months to monitor for growth, and is suffering from fatigue as a result of her shunt.<\/p>\n

Katie-Jo, who now works in retail, said: ‘I was in the middle of my GCSE exam, looking at my paper. There were colours all over the page, and I started feeling sick.<\/p>\n

‘Before that, I would notice that when I walked, I’d walk like a drunk person and lean to one side and never be able to walk straight.<\/p>\n

‘I would get awful pain in my back, but everyone thought it was GCSE stress and said I needed vitamins.’<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
Katie-Jo in hospital after her operation (Picture: Katie-Jo Bartlett \/ SWNS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A day after her exam, in June 2022, Katie-Jos’ mum, Stacey, 43, had a doctor’s appointment, so she went along with her. While her mum was with the doctor, Katie-Jo went to the toilet and collapsed.<\/p>\n

‘Nobody could get in,’ Katie-Jo recalled. ‘Around 25 minutes later, I came back around, and there were lots of people around us.’<\/p>\n

Speaking of her treatment to drain the fluid which was later found, she added: ‘The doctors told me that if I didn’t have that surgery there and then, I wouldn’t be here.<\/p>\n

‘My mum and I were so scared, but we wanted me to be better, so I went in for it as my mum promised she would never leave my side.’<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tDo you know the brain tumour symptoms?\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
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Symptoms of a brain tumour can vary, depending on its position, but the most common signs listed by the NHS<\/a> include:<\/p>\n