Sydney Tilma knew something was wrong.
The two-sport Byron Center athlete’s vision would blur the moment she popped up from her fielding stance, and there were those nagging headaches that she would get every morning, too.
“It was, ‘I didn’t eat enough for lunch, the sun is really bright, I need to get some water,’” Byron Center softball coach Crystal Laska said.
All those things could be explained away, but not the look on her mom and dad’s faces after she had an MRI.
“They took me back to the room where my parents were, and their eyes were bloodshot red,” the rising senior said. “They had been crying, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’
“That was a tough night.”
The date was June 26, 2019, just after Tilma returned from a two-day softball camp at the University of Michigan. Her doctor suggested that Tilma undergo an MRI, just as a precaution. Tilma’s parents, Erica and Marty, told their son, 13-year old Louden that they would be back home in about and hour-and-a-half.
It turned out to be 18 days.
The MRI revealed a tumor with a cyst growing on it at the base of Tilma’s brain, and she was quickly admitted to the intensive care unit. The doctors said surgery would be needed as soon as possible, so on July 1, 2019, Tilma underwent 10 hours on the operating table.
It’s a story with a happy ending. Tilma was ready to go on Aug. 13 when Byron Center’s golf team hosted its first practice, and she went on to earn all-conference honors. The spring softball season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Tilma, a pitcher and infielder, is back playing for the Diamonds travel team this summer.
It has been a long road for Tilma, her family and friends, however.
“It was a low-grade tumor,” Marty Tilma said. “But it was big because there was a cyst was growing on it, and the cyst was putting pressure on everything. It was putting pressure on the brain, and where the brain creates spinal fluid, it was pooling it off. That’s why she would get headaches in the morning after lying down all night.
“Her optic nerve was swollen, and on a scale from 1-to-5, with 1 being good, it was a 3.5. That was one big reason they put her in ICU so fast. She could have gone blind.”
Tilma called the five days waiting between the MRI and the surgery the toughest part of the whole ordeal. But she said friends and family helped ease her anxiety.
“They called me the night before her surgery and asked if we could come up to the hospital and braid her hair,” said Laska, who started coaching Tilma in travel ball when Tilma was 10. “When she was little, I braided her hair at tournaments, and she wanted her hair braided. My daughter and I went up to the hospital and put two French braids in and her hair looked perfect. The whole time she was just regular Syd. We talked about softball, we talked about this and that. It was like I was braiding her hair before the championship game.
“Only she was literally going into the biggest fight of her life. But she never wavered. A couple of days later when she could see visitors, I went up there and the first thing she said was how do my braids look? She still had her braids in. It was amazing.”
Tilma’s hair now covers up the scar on her neck where doctors went in to remove the tumor. Meanwhile, life has returned to normal, and her checkups have been good.
“My family, friends and my drive to be athletic and just to get out of the bed, I was tired of being in bed,” Tilma said when asked what helped her through her health issues. “My friend set up a prayer study and invited a lot of people to the softball field, and she prayed over me the night before the surgery. I was able to see a video of that after I woke up. My old softball team wrote my initials on their wrists and played for me. After I had been home for a little bit, I was given a couple of blankets and pillowcases, signed by friends and my mom’s and dad’s friends. I never felt more comforted.
“There is my faith, too. I have always been pushed through my faith. I think it showed me that I needed to be stronger and that I was going to win this battle.”
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