At age 12, Shannon went from a thriving athlete and musician to an angry, exhausted, and deeply unwell child almost overnight. What doctors brushed off as “attention-seeking,” “depression,” or even “drug-seeking” turned out to be something far more serious — a rare cyst on her brainstem causing immense pressure and life-altering symptoms.

In this episode, Lori shares the long, exhausting fight to be believed, the moment a lumbar puncture briefly gave her daughter’s life back, and how a neurosurgeon in Houston finally uncovered the truth: the cyst wasn’t on the pineal gland at all, but attached to the brainstem and pressing on critical structures, including the vagus nerve.

💡 Resources & Links:

Visit our website: pinealstories.com

Learn more about pineal cyst symptoms and advocacy

Share your story or contact us: pineal.stories@gmail.com

🎵 Credits:

Music: "What I Waited For" by Kikoru – Licensed via Epidemic Sound

📅 New episodes drop every Tuesday

Follow, rate, and review to help us reach more people — because the truth deserves a mic.

Content note: Pineal Stories shares patient experiences for information and education only. Nothing here is medical advice. Always consult a qualified clinician for your own care.

Guest: Laura — retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, newly minted BSN nurse, and pineal-cyst surgery patient.

Summary: Laura has lived with symptoms since age 17—fainting spells, severe migraines, visual changes, a left-hand tremor, possible CSF leaks, nausea/vomiting, and profound sleep disruption. After years of dismissals and “watch and wait,” a nursing-school sidebar about Depo-Provera and meningiomas led to an MRI—and, eventually, to Dr. Patel. Laura found him the same way many of us found help: searching relentlessly online. Her consult (July 18) validated her full symptom picture; surgery is scheduled for September 8. She shares how ICU overstimulation made life unlivable, how a tight handkerchief briefly eased pressure, why family support matters, and her dream to help build an advocacy network so no one navigates this alone.

At 18, Kayla got lost in a familiar city. By 24, she was having up to seven grand mal seizures a day, losing vision and hearing without warning, and being told it was stress or “in her head.” After years of misdiagnosis, she found a surgeon in Texas who removed a trilobal 15mm pineal cyst that had ruptured her pineal gland. The results were immediate: seizures stopped, vision and hearing normalized, appetite returned—and her long-absent menstrual cycle restarted within 48 hours. Today, Kayla’s a mom of two, back behind the wheel and behind the camera, reclaiming the life she thought was gone.

This conversation covers medical gaslighting, advocating for yourself, insurance and out-of-state care, and what recovery really looks like years later..

💡 Resources & Links:

Visit our website: pinealstories.com

Learn more about pineal cyst symptoms and advocacy

Share your story or contact us: pineal.stories@gmail.com

🎵 Credits:

Music: "What I Waited For" by Kikoru – Licensed via Epidemic Sound

📅 New episodes drop every Tuesday

Follow, rate, and review to help us reach more people — because the truth deserves a mic.