Brain cancer can present itself in a variety of subtle and surprising ways, largely due to the different tumours and parts of the organ they affect.
As it stands, more than 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year. This includes around 500 children and young people, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
A cancer survivor who fell victim to a slow-growing form of the disease, Nissa Jordan, recently took to social media to raise awareness of the symptoms that she experienced, a decade before her diagnosis.
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Nissa experienced a number of neurological symptoms preceding her diagnosis
|@rubyypanther/TikTok
Nissa (@rubyypanther on TikTok) told viewers that the topic of symptoms was a “loaded question” that she had long put off.
Running through the list of signs, she noted that she experienced several neurological problems, including bouts of déjà vu.
Seizures located in the temporal lobe may be responsible for the psychological phenomenon, causing other strange sensations as well, such as feelings of fear, strange smells, and communication and memory problems, according to the NHS Christy Foundation.
However, not all feelings of déjà vu signal a possible tumour, the charity clarified.
Recounting the years before her diagnosis, she said: “They were so vague but looking back it's so obvious,” adding that she experienced feelings of chronic fatigue “every single day”.
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However, she thought she had an autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome or was suffering from the effects of her Lyme disease diagnosis.
“It was hard for me to even walk up the stairs. It was hard for me to make food for myself, it was hard for me to go to work,” she recalled, explaining how she had stopped working altogether.
“And I thought I was just having issues within myself; I had no idea that it was something so serious.”
A far more common symptom of brain tumours are headaches, which she felt in the base of her skull, right around her head into her eyes.
Headaches are a common symptom of a brain tumour
|GETTY
Nissa also mentioned feelings of vertigo, as well as terrible nausea daily, accompanied by increased hypervigilance and a feeling that she was “constantly in fight-or-flight”.
“I felt very scared in my body,” she shared. In tandem, she recounted developing panic attacks, agoraphobia, as well as “intense” neurological symptoms, such as slurred speech.
However, each time Nissa raised concerns with medical professionals, Nissa recalls being “refused”, adding: “Everyone told me it was my mental health.”
If you are concerned about your health, please consult your GP or equivalent medical professional for an examination.