Page 6 - June 2018 Healthbeat

Meagan Chism, 17, who is preparing for her senior year at Bryant High School, was diagnosed with a brain tumor after a softball accident last year. She and her family, along with her doctor, decided to monitor the tumor rather than have Meagan undergo surgery.
After graduating from high school, Meagan plans to continue her softball career at the University of Memphis, where she plans to eventually study ophthalmology in hopes of becoming an eye doctor.
Out of
left field
Bryant catcher’s brain tumor discovered after softball accident
STORY BY SARAH DECLERK /PHOTOS BY MARK BUFFALO
Since starting softball at age 4, Meagan Chism, 17, and her parents, Donnie and Mary Chism, have cat- aloged their share of memories. From finding her calling as a catcher to joining the Lady Hornets at Bryant High School, where she will be a senior next
year, the player has developed tremendously over the years.
All three family members said their favorite softball moment happened in 2014, when Meagan helped the Arkansas Team Worth ’01 fastpitch team win the ASA/USA Class A 12-and-Under National Championship in Bloomington, Indiana.
One of their least favorite moments took place last year, when a batting accident sent Meagan to the hospital with an injury that would lead to a life- changing discovery — a small tumor tucked deep inside her brain.
THE UNKNOWN
In January 2017, Meagan and some other players were practicing with a coach from the Oklahoma Athletics Softball Academy, who was demonstrating a batting technique using a tee. Meagan, who was standing right behind the coach, said she leaned in when he swung, and his bat hit her in the face, drawing blood.
Mary took Meagan to Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock, where the teen was diagnosed with a concussion and received eight stitches. The staff also conducted a computerized tomography scan to ensure that the player did not have a brain injury.
The results showed good news and bad news. The good news was that Meagan did not have a brain
hemorrhage; the bad news was that the scan showed a tumor.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather at that point,” Mary said. “I was in disbelief.”
Meagan’s metal braces distorted the CT scan and the MRI at Baptist Health Imaging Center-Saline County that followed, so doctors were unable to provide definite answers about Meagan’s condition.
“There was a lot of stuff we didn’t know,” Meagan said. “That was the scariest part because we didn’t know what was going on.”
After she had her braces removed, Meagan underwent another MRI at Arkansas Children’s in Little Rock, where she met Dr. Kevin Bielamowicz, medical director of the hospital’s brain-tumor program.
The first thing Meagan asked him was whether she would be able to continue softball. At the time, he said that depending on the MRI results, she could continue to play normally, play with extra protection or be unable to play.
“It was still an ‘I don’t know,’” she said, “but there was always hope that I would still play. As long as I had hope, that was all I needed.”
Bielamowicz said the tumor is located on the right hippocampus of Meagan’s brain, and the
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