Hi there,

My name is Olcay, I was born in 1990 in Istanbul. I would like to share with you the stages of my brain tumor treatment that started in November 2019.

I will begin my story by first explaining how the disease was diagnosed. Sudden numbness was occurring on the left side of my body, during the one and a half year period prior to the diagnosis. We attributed this situation to my intense work pace, and when these attacks continued, we wanted to see a doctor and we applied to the first internal medicine specialist that came to our mind. He said that based on the results of the general tests, my body values were normal and that I should stay away from stress a little. When we were following the doctor’s orders, we had embraced the possibility of this being psychological and I also received psychiatric treatment while the numbness continued. During this treatment period, I was made aware that similar symptoms were present in the so-called anxiety disorder. However, seeing that the numbness persisted and became more frequent, my wife made an appointment on my behalf with the neurology department and we had an MRI. When we received our MRI result and went to our doctor, we were told that there was a 6 cm mass in my brain. Since this mass was close to the motor cortex, it required a professional intervention, otherwise I was very likely to die on the operating table or have a stroke. At this stage, our paths crossed with Prof. Erkan Kaptanoğlu, M.D., who performed my surgery. Dr. Erkan conveyed all the information about my disease and all the possibilities to be experienced as a result of the operation and we made the decision to have the operation. My surgery took about 9 to 10 hours and they had done everything they could for the intervention. When they brought me to the room, I couldn’t move my left side for about 4-5 days, I was trying to stand up and walk in certain times during the day, and finally my left side was restored.

Of course, this period involving the diagnosis, the decision to have the surgery and the aftermath was too long and detailed to fit in simple paragraphs. Because in this process, every choice creates a possibility, and these are not exactly things that people will be willing to go through. In this process, we also consulted the opinions and ideas of many doctors. There were two important factors for us in choosing Dr. Erkan. The first is his background, his career and his self-confidence. The second is that we trusted him. Because in order to hand your life over to someone, you must trust them completely. As for my surgery, the best case scenario happened and I left surgery with no permanent damage. Two-thirds of the tumor was removed, and the remaining part is now being treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy methods, under the guidance of Dr. Erkan.

In conclusion, I am happy to have regained my health, and would like to thank Prof. Erkan Kaptanoğlu and his team, who never left us alone in this troublesome period.