A 30-year-old man missed his own wedding reception due to a “horrendous migraine” that turned out to be a large brain tumor.
Nathan Vaughan, 30, and Katie Glass (now Vaughan), 26, married on May 4 at St Thomas’ Church, Holywell, Cambridgeshire.
The groom began to experience the “worst headache of his life” in the early hours of the morning of the big day, but the couple assumed he simply “felt the pressure.”
However, just after the wedding vows, Mr. Vaughan collapsed at his hotel, where he spent the rest of the day.
Both he and his new wife were devastated to miss their first dance and the cake cutting.
Nathan Vaughan, 30, was grateful to be able to enjoy his wedding ceremony before the agonizing pain began.
Mr Vaughan had to undergo urgent surgery to remove the tumour and excess blood from his brain just days after his wedding day.
Three days after the incident, the couple decided to rush to the hospital because the migraine continued to worsen.
Three days after the wedding, the couple headed to the emergency room to seek help for Ms. Vaughn’s migraine, which didn’t seem to be easing.
To his horror, doctors discovered a “huge” brain tumor and told the newlywed he would need urgent brain surgery.
Despite the terrifying discovery, the couple is grateful that the tumor was quickly identified and removed.
Nathan, a financial crime investigator, said: ‘Everything before (the wedding day) had been fine, no problems at all.
‘The morning of the wedding I woke up at 2am with a terrible headache and couldn’t get back to sleep.
‘I took painkillers, migraine pills and assumed it was just wedding day nerves because I felt a bit of pressure. But it didn’t go away and it got progressively worse throughout the day.
Mr Vaughan’s new wife was forced to dance for the first time with her father as he “fainted” from the pain.
Mr Vaughan said he felt guilty about “lying” upstairs in the hotel while his wife cut the wedding cake and continued the evening without him.
‘The ceremony came and I did my best to be there. We went through the ceremony and took some photos.
‘I went to reception and said I think I need to go to bed. I felt terribly ill. It was the worst headache of my life, a constant pain at the top of my head.
‘I ended up going back to the hotel room and basically passed out for the rest of the night. I thought I was never going to get over this.
“My first thought was that my wife would be alone on our wedding day. I was lying on top of the bed, filled with guilt for having left her alone.”
But the pain wouldn’t subside, so two days after the wedding, the couple decided to go to the local emergency room to get answers.
Doctors found hemorrhaging — or large bleeding — in a benign brain tumor the size of two thumbs that required immediate surgery to remove.
“At first they thought it might be meningitis,” Vaughan said.
“They did a CT scan and said I had swelling in my pituitary gland, which is in my brain. I thought it was just a swelling and they would give me something to bring it down and I would be gone.
‘But they took me to the hospital and at 2 or 3 in the morning they told me that I had a huge tumor on my pituitary gland.
Doctors said the life-threatening brain bleed began on Vaughan’s wedding day, but the tumor could have been growing for several years.
“I had a hemorrhage on the morning (of my wedding), so I was bleeding on the brain. I was going to have surgery in a few hours.
‘I had to have surgery because it was putting pressure on my optic nerve and that’s why I was losing my vision.
“The next day I had a four-hour operation to remove the tumor. They told me I’d probably had it all my life. I wouldn’t have known. It was on the day of the wedding that it decided to burst.”
Fortunately, doctors found that the tumor was benign, meaning it was not cancerous and would not spread to other parts of her body.
“It could have been much worse. As soon as you hear the word ‘tumor’ from the doctor, you assume the worst.
“I don’t think Katie realized that after saying ‘in sickness and in health,’ she was going to take care of me soon. It’s a long recovery process.”
The couple, who have been together for a decade, are planning to repeat their wedding reception on their first anniversary and have booked a honeymoon in Kos, Greece.
The couple plans to recreate their wedding next year and will invite family and friends to share in the celebrations.
The new bride admitted she was “devastated” not to have been able to experience her wedding reception with her husband, but is “grateful” her tumour was removed so quickly.
Mrs Vaughan, who is a police officer, said: ‘At first I thought she had become so stressed she had become ill.
‘I sent the photographer over and he said he’d do another photo retouch for free. A month later, we got dressed up and took a few more photos on location.
“I said to the kitchen, ‘Could you please cut the cake,’ and I got to work. My dad danced with me at the end of the night, bless him.
“We felt incredibly guilty when we found out what it was. We thought it was just a matter of watching and waiting. We thought it was a migraine.
‘It was a strange moment. I like looking at the photographs, but at the same time it was a very strange day. It wasn’t what I imagined for my wedding day.
“I’m very grateful that he was treated so quickly. If we had left him like that, it would have seriously affected his vision. We’re very lucky.”
