At 19 years old, Amy Pejkovic was an active young woman. The teen was a high jumper, and she trained daily. She even had her sights set on international competitions.
Unfortunately, her Olympic dreams were shattered when the headaches she'd suffered from for years finally became debilitating.
Her daily headaches were so painful that, at one point, she was vomiting at every single training session. She couldn't balance properly, and everyday life became a struggle.
Multiple doctors misdiagnosed Amy with a middle-ear infection, but something told her the headaches were more serious than that.
Eventually, doctors performed an MRI scan on Amy and found a life-threatening, 5-cm brain tumor. Amy's doctors told her she was probably just days away from dying.
After going through brain surgery to have the brain tumor removed, Amy began the long road to recovery, fearing that her athletic dreams were gone forever. But now, at 24, Amy is back to high-jumping — and looking to compete at the 2020 Olympics.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
When Amy Pejkovic was 19, she was training hard to become an Olympic-level high jumper.
Although she had daily headaches, she pushed through them to train for her dream.
Eventually, the headaches got so bad Amy couldn't ignore them anymore. Every training session, she would vomit from the pain, and even daily activities made her head hurt.
A doctor diagnosed Amy with a middle-ear infection.
When the headaches still didn't clear up, she saw another doctor. They told her it was the same thing: a middle-ear infection.
Finally, Amy got an MRI, and everyone was shocked to see a 5-cm tumor in the teen's brain.
Amy thought her Olympic dreams were over. She was terrified that she might die from the tumor, but even if she didn't, she worried she'd never be able to pursue her athletic passions.
Surgeons successfully removed Amy's brain tumor, but she had a lot of recovering ahead of her.
After her surgery, Amy struggled to recover emotionally.
Understandably, she had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that she'd unknowingly been living with a tumor for years and years.
Now, five years later, Amy is a thriving 24-year-old model and high jumper.
If she didn't tell people about her brain tumor, you'd never know what she'd been through.
On May 25, 2017, Amy shared the above photo from her doctor's office. She wrote:
Another year, another MRI. It certainly never gets easier! The ‘what if’ is always in the back of my mind.
Driving to the hospital this morning as we got closer and closer, I had that nervous/anxious feeling in the pit on my stomach — even though I feel fine, it’s the ‘what if’ is always in the back of my mind.
I was also thinking to myself — I did a post on how this was a battle I fought and won, but really I still haven’t won. I won the battle but I haven’t won the war. The fear of new growth is always in my subconscious, the way my brain tumor has affected every aspect of my life — and in many ways I am still trying to control.
Mentally the past 5 years have been the hardest years of my life. People don’t realize that it affects every aspect of your life in ways you cannot control. And it really takes it [sic] toll. At least if this one is all clear the scans will be every 2 years!!!
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