I thought I was going to die – Abimbola Craig speaks on battle with brain tumour

• Abimbola Craig has opened up on her health challenge, 10 years after she underwent brain surgery.
• The brilliant filmmaker cum actress said when the doctors told her she had brain tumour and needed a surgery in 2014, she didn’t fear death as much as post the procedure.
• Abimbola Craig said some days after the successful surgery, she started having hallucinations, insomnia, depression, lack of appetite and puking.
• These symptoms had her fearing for her life but 10 years down the lane, she’s grateful for life.

Popular Nigerian filmmaker cum actress Abimbola Craig, known for ‘Skinny Girl in Transit’, amongst other hit movies has talked candidly about the grueling operations she underwent after a brain surgery in 2014, emphasising that she truly believed she would not survive.

In a new video on YouTube, she spoke about her experience after the doctors discovered that she had a brain tumour and needed surgery.

However, the removal of the tumour led to a different issue. Shortly after the procedure, Craig realised that she was reacting to the pain medication. She said:

“Four days after the surgery I started feeling weird but I couldn’t explain what it was that was wrong with me. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep and I also started losing my appetite and started losing weight.

I thought maybe it was the strong pain medication I was on.”

After googling the side effects of the medication she realised that she was experiencing both insomnia, hallucinations and depression. And after calling the hospital, she was permitted to switch to a less effective pain medication, however, she had already lost 10kg.

Craig recalled a particularly excruciating procedure she endured after her surgery, the lumbar puncture. She said:

“I remember my last visit. I was still throwing up so much that Mum tried to reach my doctor but couldn’t.

At this time I was doing a lumbar puncture, I had 4 that day. Lumbar punctures are like spinal taps. So they tell you to bend and take fluids from the spine and the reason why they did this is because they still didn’t know what was wrong with me so they thought I had meningitis.”

After conducting tests, It was discovered that she had simply contracted malaria during her visit to Nigeria.

She was immediately treated for malaria and was on the road to recovery.

Abimbola Craig continued:

“10 years after my surgery, I am alive. I am healthy and doing things I never thought I’d be able to do again. I thought I was going to die, not even from the brain surgery. It was during the period of the lumbar puncture, not sure if I had meningitis and all. I literally thought I was going to die.”