Nadine Sperling, a Crookston resident, has been battling some difficult circumstances of late, which included finding out she had a brain tumor after getting into a car accident.
Sperling gave us a look into her family, employment, and recent health scare. “I work at Altru Clinic in Crookston, I also travel to Red Lake Falls and Erskine,” says Sperling. “I do occupational therapy; I am an assistant.” Sperling has two daughters, Hailey, who is 22 and lives on her own, and a 15-year-old, Kyra, who lives at home with Sperling.
Sperling was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and talking about it is very emotional for her. “I got in a car accident, and from that evening when I got in the car accident, it was just like I blacked out, I don’t remember it, and the next morning I went to the doctor because that was just a bizarre happening,” says Sperling “They diagnosed me at that time with a seizure that had caused the accident, and the brain tumor caused the seizure.” The tumor that was found on Sperling’s brain is called a meningioma, which is a non-cancerous tumor.
As it is said sometimes, this accident was a “blessing in disguise” as it was at that point Sperling knew that the symptoms she had been feeling for a little while before the accident really were indicating something serious, although she passed them off as probably normal for a woman of her age.
Sperling explained that the evening of the accident was still quite a blur to her and that her accident really ended up being a pretty big ordeal. “It was about five o’clock; I had just left my Aunt’s house and crashed into a tree,” says Sperling. “Crashing into the tree, I don’t remember at all, and allegedly some people from the community stopped, allegedly tried talking to me, and told the police officer I was very in and out of consciousness.” Once the ambulance arrived on scene, Sperling said she was put on a gurney and put in the ambulance. “I don’t remember any of that, but they told me I had gotten into an accident and hit a tree,” says Sperling. “I do remember starting to come to a little bit in the ambulance, and I was insistent that I did not hit a tree because I didn’t recall any of it.” At this point, Sperling says she unstrapped herself from the gurney and crawled out of the ambulance, and the officers then insisted that they do a sobriety test on her. “They put me through the sobriety test, at that time I was very in and out as far as recalling, I do recall some of it, but not all of it,” says Sperling. “They did a breathalyzer on me, and that I passed, but since I didn’t pass the rest of the sobriety test, they did take me to jail.”
Sperling was arrested on August 8th for suspicion of driving under the influence. After sitting in jail for a little over five hours, the Sheriff had Sperling do a urine test to see if there were any other controlled substances in her urine, and that came out clean, and she was released from jail. “I don’t hold anything against the arresting officers; they were just doing their job,” says Sperling. “Obviously, I was not right.” Sperling says she has watched video of her arrest. “I would have taken me to jail too because I was very out of it and appeared to be under the influence, but it had been a seizure.” Sperling was medically cleared of any charges.
It was the next morning that Sperling made an appointment with the doctor as she knew at this point there was something that needed to be looked at, and that is when the tumor was found. Sperling was diagnosed with the tumor on August 9, and it was removed on August 22. “They did place it as an urgent matter, and I had surgery in Fargo on August 22 to remove the meningioma,” says Sperling. “It was a five-hour surgery, and my boyfriend, my parents, my youngest sister and my daughter Hailey were all there with me and waited there until the surgery was done.” Sperling says her boyfriend remained by her side just about until she was released to go home. She was in the hospital for just two nights and released earlier than anticipated because she was doing better than anticipated.
The neurosurgeon that took care of Sperling was from Sanford, which was out-of-network for Sperling, and she is now dealing with the stress of medical bills. At first, it looked as if her insurance was going to cover little to nothing but Sperling explains that it’s looking a little better. “Initially, it did not look like the insurance was covering very much because it was out-of-network but my in-network did not have a neurosurgeon at that time,” says Sperling. “Insurance covered more than I anticipated, thank goodness.”
Because of the type of tumor that Sperling had, there is no treatment that has to follow other than some anti-seizure drugs that are recommended she be on for the next couple of years. It took some time to settle into the right medication though, she says. “Initially, I was on Keppra, which is a very frequently used seizure medication, fairly well known,” says Sperling. “I was not tolerating that very well, had a lot of negative symptoms, psychologically, I was not sleeping and was very depressed.” Sperling is now taking Vimpat and says that she feels much more herself, she is sleeping and is not having random mood swings.
As you can imagine, especially with the holidays upon us, the uncertainty of the remaining medical bills is hard to face right now. Sperling has set up a GoFundMe where she explains what she has been through but, she didn’t have high expectations yet, there are kind people out there reaching out to Sperling to help ease the burden of her medical bills. To visit Sperlings Go Fund Me page, click the following link Fundraiser by Nadine Sperling : Support Nadine’s Journey to Recovery and Hope
Sperling has a list of people she would like to thank, including her parents, boyfriend, sister and daughter Hailey for being with her through this process and also the many doctors and nurses that have treated her. The Altru team consisted of Dr. Aura Azarcon and her nurse Amy Erickson, Dr. Rose Brandt and her nurse Jennifer Olson, Breanna Privratsky, PA and her nurse Michelle Helgeson and at Sanford, Dr. Adam Jackson, Neurosurgeon and his nurse Vanessa and Dr. Brett Lee, Neurologist and his nurse Jessica.
