Annual Report 2011-2012 - Tri Delta

Emergency Financial Assistance:Crescent & Collegiate Crescent Funds ProgramHeadaches are probably nothing unusual for the typical college student, but the painLauren D., Eastern Illinois, felt upon waking one morning in September 2008 was somethingdifferent. "It was concentrated in the lower back region of my head," she says, noting thatthe pain was very intense. She went to the student health center only to be told it was atension headache.With a prescription headache reliever, Lauren was able to numb the pain, though it neverreally went away. A few months later, noting the pain was still there, her mother insisted shego to her regular physician. On New Year's Eve 2008, she found out it was a cyst growing onher skull. A surgery was scheduled to remove it.Less than a week later, however, the cyst was leaking and it was determined she had aninfection. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the cyst, once thought to be growingon top of her skull, and actually grown into her skull as well. In January 2009, when moststudents are getting ready to go back to school from winter break, Lauren underwent her firstsurgery: a cranioplasty to remove the portion of her skull that contained the infected cyst.After the surgery, Lauren was outfitted with a PIC line in her arm, a semi-permanent IV topump her full of antibiotics for about a month.After the infection had cleared, Lauren soon had her second surgery, to place a plate in thearea where the skull and cyst were removed. This should have been the end of it, but over thesummer, Lauren started feeling pain again. She woke up one morning to a familiar leaking andwent to the ER. The neurosurgeon there determined she had another infection, and the plateshe'd had inserted needed to be removed to let the infection heal. She was on oral antibioticsfor more than two months.At just 21-years-old, Lauren has been through much more than the average college student,yet her goal through it all is to remain just that: the normal college student. Though she wasforced to delay school for a bit after her initial surgeries, she says a Collegiate Crescent FundGrant from the Tri Delta Foundation has helped keep her on track.“The grant gave me an extra boost, a reminder that even though I went through all of this,I can still be successful and continue with my plans – just on a new timeline,” she says.“Thanks to the Foundation, I know I have people – sisters – behind me that I've never evenmet, motivating me to stay focused on my goals.”