American Idol alum Avalon Young underwent surgery on Friday (Feb 26) to remove a brain tumor on her front temporal lobe.
The American Idol season 15 eighth place finisher told San Diego FOX 5 that she realized something wasn’t right with her health this past summer when she had a twitch in her shoulder, but was told it was anxiety. By Thanksgiving, her symptoms worsened.
I’ve never had a seizure in my life! said Avalon
“I just felt a little bit disconnected mentally and then I started having what they’re calling a simple partial seizure once every three hours for a few days, which was very alarming, of course,” Avalon said. “I’m not an epileptic; I’ve never had a seizure in my life, so I didn’t even actually know what was going on, at first.”
Doctors told Avalon and her mother that her anxiety was triggering the attacks. But they both disagreed with the doctor’s assessment.
“I’ve been diagnosed with anxiety and OCD all my life and I had never, ever, ever had an attack like that,” she said.
Avalon finally underwent an MRI which found a peach sized tumor
Avalon finally underwent an MRI and learned that she had a lesion mass tumor on her left frontal lobe that was “as big as a peach.” The tumor was scheduled to be removed Friday in a 12-hour surgery at UC San Diego Medical Center in La Jolla by a team of a dozen doctors.
She is expecting to spend one night in the ICU and then doctors will “just want to see where it goes from there.”
“If I’m being 100% honest, I don’t think I’ve even really had time to process it yet, but I’m OK with that,” Avalon said. “Because tomorrow I get the surgery and it can all just be done whereas if we didn’t go to the ER on the day that we did — just a biopsy would be six weeks out.
Avalon assures fans that the surgery will make her music 100% better
“I was lucky enough to go into the ER and for them to actually see a picture of my brain and realize that it needed to be taken out immediately.” Avalon assures fans that the surgery will make her music “100%” better.
“How could something like this not make your life better?” she said. “You come out of it; it happened; it’s not the greatest experience. But when you come out of it, I mean, I’m lucky I get to go through this; I get to survive; I get to live and that’s really, really awesome for me.”
Avalon’s partner started a GoFundMe for her
Avalon’s partner of 3 years, Breanna Ojala has started a GoFundMe for the singer’s expenses that has raised over $17,000 of a $20,000 goal. Check it out HERE.
Also, before the surgery, Avalon posted a note on Instagram, along with an image of her MRI. That tumor looks damn big. What’s striking is that she received several wrong diagnosis before the doctors finally prescribed an MRI which finally found the problem.
Thinking about Avalon, hope her surgery went well and that she is recovering (and that the tumor is benign).
View this post on Instagram
