My pregnancy and Arrabella’s early childhood up until October 2022 were completely normal. She was a bright, curious little girl who always wanted to know the “why” behind everything. She was caring, especially when her brother was born, and our home was constantly filled with music – something that hasn’t changed. Looking back, she had…

Trigger Warning: This article discusses topics related to eating disorders and suicide. Reader discretion is advised. My name is Tatum, and I survived an undiagnosed hypothalamic hamartoma for thirty-one years. I was born a happy and healthy 8-pound 3-ounce baby. From the time I was an infant, I was picky about a lot of things.…

My name is Sally. I’m now 68 years old, and a reference librarian at a law school where I teach soon-to-be lawyers Advanced Legal Research. Some facts about me include having three university degrees, a cute little nub on my left hand where my 6th finger was, a scar on my right foot where my…

On the 18th of September 2023, our beautiful little girl Remy was born. A perfect 3.5kg bundle of love and adored by her big brother from day 1. My midwife checked her APGAR (a test given to newborns soon after birth) and delightfully noted it was a 10. Over the next 4 weeks she was…

In September 2022, we welcomed to the world, our beautiful little girl, Sofia – we were excited but understandably nervous, as my pregnancy hadn’t been smooth sailing. Throughout my pregnancy I had repeat episodes where Sofia would stop moving for long periods of time, causing us to visit the hospital on multiple occasions – each…

Kaelee’s HH Journey Kaelee was born in 2013 as the first of identical twins. The birth was uncomplicated, and she and her sister reached all of their milestones appropriately and she was a happy, bubbly little girl. When she entered school, Kaelee was by all standards above average. She and her sister had a large…

[see English translation]   Путешествие Руслана До 38 недели моя беременность протекала нормально. У меня было не только высокое давление, но и отеки. Однако гинеколог спокойно отреагировала на эту проблему со словами “для беременной женщины это нормальное давление”. К сожалению, все пошло не по плану. Из-за высокого кровяного давления на 39 неделе беременности у меня…

[see Russian translation] My pregnancy was normal until 38 weeks. I had not only high blood pressure but also swelling. However, gynecologist reacted calmly to this problem with the words “for the pregnant woman that is normal blood pressure “. Unfortunately, everything worked in the wrong way. The high blood pressure at 39 weeks pregnancy…

Update on Monica’s HH Journey We would like to provide an update of Monica’s story since first sharing her story in December 2022. Monica was slowly weaned off her medication, seizure free and doing very well. About 3 weeks after she was completely off medications, I went into her room to wake her, which caused…

Debbie’s HH Journey My name is Debbie Menzies, I’m 60 years old, and I survived an undiagnosed Hypothalamic Hamartoma for 55 years. Born Deborah A. LeBorgne, the youngest of six children, I was raised in Westbrook, Maine. My youngest memories are as a 5-year-old, very happy, well-adjusted, and outgoing little girl. Cruelly, those memories soon…

Adelaide’s HH Journey Adelaide was born on November 23, 2018 as the youngest sibling to her two sisters and brother. She met all of her milestones however she was very hard to settle, didn’t sleep very well (even for a baby) and cried quite a bit. For the first 18 months of her life she…

Monica’s HH Journey Monica was our second daughter, born full term on October 2, 2011. We were so excited to have 2 little girls to love! Our first daughter was a content baby and we didn’t expect anything different with our second daughter. But it wasn’t long until we realized something was bothering her. Some…

Logan’s HH Journey Logan was born on August 11th 2014 coming into the world at 7.3 lbs and laughing to the surprise of not only us but the doctors and nurses at delivery. We all thought this was very cute especially hearing of the death of Robin Williams that very same day, so we called…

A Hypothalamic Hamartoma Journey of Discovery   The Beginning of Knowledge – Finding the Hypothalamic Hamartoma I entered the world as a work in progress after only 32 weeks. Several personal anatomical anomalies, including extra digits, required correction then and throughout the following years. I reached developmental milestones in my own time but eventually caught…

My partner Martin and I had difficulty getting pregnant; we opted to have IVF. My pregnancy was normal besides having to watch my blood pressure. In week 18 I was diagnosed with placenta praevia marginalis. However, this didn’t cause any further problems. I gave birth to my beautiful, wise boy on the 31st of July…

My husband and I found out that we were pregnant with a baby boy and were ecstatic! There were no complications in my pregnancy besides that our baby boy Jaxon was frank breech, so we had an ultrasound at 35 weeks pregnant to determine if I could deliver naturally or would need a c-section. At…

Mark and I married 8 years ago, in our mid-thirties, and wanted nothing more than to be parents.  Our journey to parenthood took the course of unsuccessful infertility treatments, as well as domestic newborn adoption.  Brett was born on Saturday, October 5, 2019, however, we didn’t meet him until 5 days later in the hospital…

Meet Lou – A Story of Hope Lou’s story, like many others on this site, begins with a series of misdiagnoses. When he was an infant he was making an odd sound — a  repetitive ‘ho-ho’ that wasn’t very laughter-like. Our baby would make noises every 15 minutes, waking himself up and because of this…

Madeleine was born on September 5th, 2004. Everything appeared normal until some unusual symptoms at 6 months old. Her diagnosis from Great Ormond Street was quick, she had a Hypothalamic Hamartoma (HH), a rare type of brain tumor. We were constantly watching for seizures, common with this diagnosis, but thankfully they never appeared. On the…