2008 Woodie Awards
Senior Uses Life Experiences to Move Forward
Jen Braaten/Muleskinner
Issue date: 1/11/07 Section: Features
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Prepare your heart to slide up your throat only to drop drastically to your stomach, like you're on the world's tallest roller-coaster.
By the time "retirement" age is reached, one will have probably faced setbacks, if not a couple tragedies. For Angie Rhoads, UCM senior, she has dealt with a lifetime of ordeals by age 22.
In late summer 2006, Rhoads, public relations major, along with other Christian Campus House women embarked on a canoeing adventure. During the float, Rhoads fell from her boat due to an uncontrollable seizure.
"We got to her when she fell in the water; it was one of the most frightening experiences," said Jenna Wright, who accompanied Rhodes on the trip. "She's one of my best friends. I was scared, especially since I didn't understand what was happening."
An ambulance awaited Angie on shore, and she was taken to a nearby hospital in Lebanon, Mo. A CAT scan revealed an abnormality in the left frontal lobe of her brain.
"I thought, you've got to be kidding, this could be a brain tumor, which my dad died from," Rhoads .
She began a series of appointments with St. Luke doctors and said she felt encouraged since her dad's doctor was on the research team with her own doctor.
More evidence provided a diagnosis of oligodendroglioma, a type of brain tumor.
"Brain tumors have been such a big part of my life, and the term has been thrown around like any other 'sickness,' such as the common cold," Rhoads wrote on her blog, angie-rhoads.blogspot.com.
Early predictions called the tumor a grade one or two, yet surgery uncovered a grade three out of a total of four grades. According to Wikipedia.org, survival average for grade three patients is 31/2 years.
"The Web site also says this type of tumor occurs primarily in adults with an average diagnosis age of 40 and is male dominated," Rhoads said. "I don't feel this is my time period at all; I feel unique."
"Doctors recommended six weeks of radiation and 10 months of chemo," Rhoads said. "That's not something I wanted to do at all. My adviser, Tricia Hansen-Horn, suggested glyconutrients because her daughter has a brain tumor too, and they started to use the glyconutrients as an alternative after she did chemo."
By the time "retirement" age is reached, one will have probably faced setbacks, if not a couple tragedies. For Angie Rhoads, UCM senior, she has dealt with a lifetime of ordeals by age 22.
In late summer 2006, Rhoads, public relations major, along with other Christian Campus House women embarked on a canoeing adventure. During the float, Rhoads fell from her boat due to an uncontrollable seizure.
"We got to her when she fell in the water; it was one of the most frightening experiences," said Jenna Wright, who accompanied Rhodes on the trip. "She's one of my best friends. I was scared, especially since I didn't understand what was happening."
An ambulance awaited Angie on shore, and she was taken to a nearby hospital in Lebanon, Mo. A CAT scan revealed an abnormality in the left frontal lobe of her brain.
"I thought, you've got to be kidding, this could be a brain tumor, which my dad died from," Rhoads .
She began a series of appointments with St. Luke doctors and said she felt encouraged since her dad's doctor was on the research team with her own doctor.
More evidence provided a diagnosis of oligodendroglioma, a type of brain tumor.
"Brain tumors have been such a big part of my life, and the term has been thrown around like any other 'sickness,' such as the common cold," Rhoads wrote on her blog, angie-rhoads.blogspot.com.
Early predictions called the tumor a grade one or two, yet surgery uncovered a grade three out of a total of four grades. According to Wikipedia.org, survival average for grade three patients is 31/2 years.
"The Web site also says this type of tumor occurs primarily in adults with an average diagnosis age of 40 and is male dominated," Rhoads said. "I don't feel this is my time period at all; I feel unique."
"Doctors recommended six weeks of radiation and 10 months of chemo," Rhoads said. "That's not something I wanted to do at all. My adviser, Tricia Hansen-Horn, suggested glyconutrients because her daughter has a brain tumor too, and they started to use the glyconutrients as an alternative after she did chemo."
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