More sad news for the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show. Just a few months after Kidd Kraddick passed away, fellow show personality "Psycho" Shanon Murphy revealed on the air and her blog on Monday that she has a tumor on her brain stem. Though the tumor is benign, surgery is required and there are many risks with the procedure.
Murphy was generous to share with us yesterday afternoon about her diagnosis and what comes next.
Walk me through the last few weeks.
On the Friday before last, I woke up with swelling on the left side of my face and numbness on the left side of my body. Vomiting and nausea and dizziness and stuff like that. I thought it was sinus junk, so I went to the doctor on Monday. Everything was clear as far as the sinus junk went. He sent me for an MRI on Tuesday and they got the results. Then on Wednesday, during the show on Kidd's Kids Day, my primary called and said there was a mass that wasn't supposed to be there and that a neurosurgeon would be calling me to set up an appointment. The next day, I had an appointment with the neurosurgeon and he sent me for another MRI. Then the next day, I had to go to the second neurosurgeon who is going to do the operating. He was going to do the surgery [today, the 30th], but there's too much swelling in my brain to do it. It's more complicated and it will do permanent damage if I did it now.
What's the timeline for surgery now?
My primary doctor does not think that I will get through December before having to have it. My goal is to get to the Kidd's Kids trip, which is the Thursday before Thanksgiving. We get back the following Monday and so I'm going to try and do it the day before Thanksgiving.
I have to say from personal experience being on the radio, you're expected to be this upbeat kind of personality or expected to be a certain kind of personality. How hard has it been for you to be on the air while also staring down this big thing?
It's the reality. Kidd was the first person that I ever worked for, worked with. One of the things he stressed about being a part of the show was honesty and being real. I do believe that there is a lot to be said for the power of prayer. We have good listeners who have shown their devotion to the show and I'm really grateful for that. It's actually helped me to get messages from them saying they support me. I've gotten a couple of messages from moms whose kids, while they were dropping them off in the carpool lane at school, and the kid wouldn't get out of the car until they prayed for me. It's really humbling and it means a lot that I have the support that I do.
Until the surgery happens, are you taking it one day at a time?
Um, yeah. I'm taking steroids to try to get the swelling in my brain down. Apparently I've got some non-bacterial meningitis that's caused this. The tumor that's in there was something I was born with and it's just really slow-growing. I've had migraines, I've had CAT scans, I've had MRIs, and they're never shown up before. It just looks like spinal fluid. Now that I'm showing symptoms and they can actually see what it is and what's going on, they can go in and operate. Fortunately it's a benign tumor. It's not like I have cancer or anything. It's just in a really bad spot. With the swelling right now, they would have to pull too hard and it would do nerve damage. I can't afford to lose my hearing or my vision or anything like that. So, yeah, it's take the steroids and hope that they work.
And surgery was the only real option? They couldn't do radiation or chemo.
No. They don't think it would respond to radiation or chemo. Apparently, the way I remember it, they're going to have two neurosurgeons doing it and they'll do an S-shaped incision behind my ear. Surgery will take a couple of hours. They'll sew me back up and I'll spend a few days in the ICU and then I'll spend a few days in a regular room. One neurosurgeon said it will be a one-week recovery. Another one said it would be up to four. So I don't know what the recovery time will be. I guess it just depends on my body.
