{"id":18746,"date":"2024-06-11T08:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T06:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/lowveld\/?p=18746"},"modified":"2024-06-11T08:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T06:09:26","slug":"journey-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/lowveld\/blog\/2024\/06\/11\/journey-of-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey of grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up on a farm to a schoolteacher mother and dad who came from a long line of farmers, Romien had no idea just how much life could change, or how quickly. \u201cI led a perfectly normal, happy and healthy life. My brother and I took the school bus to school, and there were many neighbourhood children to play with,\u201d she says. \u201cI remember how we\u2019d sometimes miss the school bus and Mum would race after it to get us to school on time! We had no worries in the world; I don\u2019t even remember anyone ever getting sick in our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

After completing high school, Romien went to university and studied human resources management. Then she added a financial management degree to the pot. \u201cI was fortunate and landed management positions at companies at an early age, and finally a high-profile job as head of corporate governance and finance at an international pharmaceutical company,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI loved my job. It was rewarding and stimulating, but it was also very demanding – to such an extent that I sometimes neglected my family due to very long hours at the office. I was happy. I was a successful career woman, and I could never imagine doing anything else.\u201d Not for one minute did she think this could all end in a heartbeat – and that a mere few years later, she would be diagnosed with a rare spinal tumour.<\/p>\n

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Romien recalls how two years before her diagnosis, her legs started feeling slightly numb with a burning sensation. \u201cI consulted with several general practitioners, as well as specialists, who all told me they could not find anything wrong,\u201d she explains. \u201cSpinal cord tumours are rare and difficult to diagnose. They are less common than brain tumours. Patients may experience symptoms like trouble walking or using their arms and hands, muscle weakness, a general sense of inco-ordination [loss of sense of position in space], numbness, tingling, even paralysis to varying degrees and many more.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had a very rare tumour inside my spinal cord, which could eventually leave me paralysed, even if treated<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These tumours are usually found strictly by coincidence when scans are done for other medical reasons, also because a doctor will first investigate other potential causes for pain and muscle weakness. Patients have mixed symptoms – all of which can lengthen the diagnosis process. \u201cIt was on what I thought would be another perfectly ordinary day that I received the news,\u201d Romien says. \u201cI had a very rare tumour inside my spinal cord, which could eventually leave me paralysed, even if treated. One in a million people worldwide gets diagnosed with an intramedullary spinal cord tumour. If South Africa has a population of 60 million people, it means that only 60 people in South Africa have such a tumour. I was carrying a ticking time bomb, needing urgent, life-threatening, life-changing surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n