Everyone gets a headache now and then.

Brooke Zellner got a migraine many years ago. She got one yesterday too, and she’ll have another today and one more tomorrow as well. In fact, she can’t remember a day in her life without a constant throbbing pain inside her head.

A medical mystery

Test after test showed nothing. Medicine after medicine delivered no relief. Since Brooke was in elementary school, neurologists had been trying to find a cause for her headaches — or at least the right prescription of meds to give her a break from daily pain.

“It wasn’t until a year ago that Dr. Bushra Malik in Bethlehem decided to check Brooke’s sinuses,” said her mother, Shelly Babinchak. “A CAT scan discovered a benign cyst or a tiny tumor deep inside her head. It was located where the spinal fluid exits the brain.”

A tumor of this type rarely ever grows, but if it does in this location, it can block the “exit” causing what was once known as, “water on the brain.” It’s something that inevitably leads to death.

After reviewing older scans, Dr. Malik concluded that the tumor had indeed grown over the course of several years.

Keeping a

close watch

Malik referred Brooke’s case to neurosurgeon, Dr. Phillip Storm at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia (CHOP). In the meantime, Shelly was asked to observe her daughter closely, especially if her Brooke awakened in the morning with a severe migraine accompanied by vomiting, which might indicate that the spinal fluid was blocked by the tumor.

“During my worst headaches during this winter, I got totally numb in my shoulders and my neck, and my eyes would go blind so I see nothing but black,” Brooke explained. “It can last a whole day. I take injections to help reduce some of the pain.”

Brooke, who had sustained a previous concussion playing the catcher position for the Tamaqua High School softball team, was approved to continue playing softball. Doctors believe that a hit or jar to her head would not exacerbate the issue with the tumor since it is located so deep inside her head.

“At tryouts this year, when I was running, I felt like my head was going to explode,” said Brooke. “It was explained to me that when I run, everything in my body swells which restricts the flow of the fluid, something else I learned so I know what to expect.”

At CHOP in March, Dr. Storm was able to confirm that the tumor had grown from 4cm to 6cm, but he and his staff are reluctant at this point to perform surgery. The ventricles in Brooke’s brain are too small. To remove the tumor, Storm would have to navigate through these ventricles, and any slight disturbance or harm to them could leave Brooke with total memory loss.

Other reasons for not rushing into surgery are significant as well.

“We were told the tumor could grow back, and that there’s no way to prove it’s the cause of her headaches,” said Shelly. “Right now, the risks of surgery outweigh the benefits.”

“If it comes to surgery, I’m good with it,” said Brooke. “I know I could lose my memory forever, but I like to think positive. I trust that wouldn’t happen, and then for the first time, I could live a day without pain.”

A second opinion

With such serious decisions standing in front of them, Shelley traveled with Brooke to John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, where after a review by a panel of neurosurgeons, Dr. Chetan Bettegowda confirmed that the best action to take was no action at all.

He said that performing the surgery now was “extremely risky” and not prudent to put an 18-year-old in jeopardy of losing her memory. Additionally, he couldn’t tell if the tumor was pressing on an optic nerve. His suggestion was that its growth was slow enough and that Brooke should be monitored every three months.

He noted that if the ventricles began swelling, than surgical navigation would be easier; however, the swelling would also be an indicator that the tumor was blocking the spinal fluid from exiting her brain. If this scenario would occur, immediate action to remove the tumor might be the only option to take.

Playing through pain

“She takes Botox injections to deaden nerve endings and lower the intensity of the pain,” Shelly said. “She doesn’t sleep much either, only a few hours a night. She’s tired of me asking her how she feels all the time. I give her all the credit. I know how I can complain when I get one headache. I couldn’t do what she is doing.”

Just over a week ago, in the Raiders’ District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal round softball game against Northwestern, Brooke hit a three-run homer to spark her team to victory.

But that was only part of the story.

“That very morning, Brooke received 30 Botox injections into her scalp,” said Tamaqua softball coach Jill Barron. “Sometimes, these shots can knock her down so I wasn’t sure she would be able to play. What a performance. What an amazing fighter she is.”

Zellner displayed her talent and toughness during a stellar senior season, compiling tremendous offensive numbers and helping Tamaqua to a 17-5 record. Zellner was among the team leaders in hits (26), batting average (.377), RBIs (25), runs scored (19), extra base hits (nine), and home runs (two).

Barron said she took great care to not put Brooke in harm’s way.

“We took her out of a game against Panther Valley when a foul tip struck her in the head,” said Barron. “Brooke lives for softball and she’s extremely competitive, so she never wants to come out of a game. Plus, she plays the toughest position. But we wanted to make sure we were putting her health first.”

Zellner also did her part to make sure she stayed as healthy as possible.

“I know when I have to take a break. I go home and lie down in a dark room,” Brooke explained. “Bright lights and loud noises bother me, as do extreme hot and cold temperatures.

When I went to our senior prom, I had to wear sunglasses because there were flashing strobe lights and I couldn’t go to the after parties with my friends. But I have a great boyfriend who is very understanding.”

Unyielding and

unselfish

For the Raiders’ senior captain, life goes on.

Each day, the pain reminds her of how fragile she is. But her courage and her perseverance won’t let her give in.

Brooke won the battle to be a normal teenager.

She was classified as having a disability that would have enabled her to be home-schooled. “I missed a lot of school early on,” she said, “but I refused to stay home to learn. I get myself up every day and I push through it.”

She was recently accepted with scholarship to the University of Indianapolis, but her dream of attending school there had to be cancelled.

“I can’t go that far away from home just in case something should happen,” Brooke explained.

A member of Tamaqua’s National Honor Society, she will attend Lebanon Valley College in the fall, and hopes to get a chance to try out for their softball team.

This long ordeal has humbled her. “I feel bad for everyone else in my life,” Brooke said. “I feel like I let them down because they have to stop what they’re doing and check on me all the time.”

She carries no self-pity, despite knowing that the pain will continue for an undetermined amount of time and possibly lead to risky surgery.

Whether it’s her recently-completed outstanding softball season, or her upcoming high school graduation, Zellner continues to be happy and live in the moment.

“I’m grateful to get up every morning and know that I’m still alive,” Brooke said. “There are a lot of people in this world who have it worse than me.”