Chicago rock climber undergoes brain surgery by doctor who's a rock climber too
But a friendly face in the operating room helped Sophie Lin get to the gym again.
Lin is a geologist who loves to analyze rocks — and around seven years ago, she became enamored with navigating and climbing them too. She could regularly be found practicing in gyms like First Ascent in the Loop multiple times a week.
Her strength, strategy, and skills were all on the rise, until a strange feeling of weakness crept in.
"If I reached for a right, like handhold, I would just miss," Lin said. "I would like circle it, fall."
Lin noticed a problem with her grip too.
"My right hand, after like maybe five, 10 seconds would just like, unfurl," Lin said, "even though, in my head, I'm telling my hand to like stay there."
Then came seizure-like symptoms, which prompted her to get an MRI. It revealed a cyst in her brain — likely caused by a procedure she had as a child.
Northwestern Medicine neurosurgeon Dr. Matthew Potts took the case. It turned out Dr. Potts was a rock climber too.
"Funny little small world," Lin said.
"From the first day we met, like, I think we had that connection and that bond," Potts said.
More than anyone, Dr. Potts understood the difficulties his patient was describing.
"The symptoms she was having wasn't necessarily preventing her from working, but it was absolutely preventing her from doing this hobby that she loves," said Potts.
The treatment they settled on was brain surgery. The operation had to be done while Lin was awake.
"Doing a surgery in this part of the brain can be dangerous. We worry that any injury to the brain can permanently affect language or movement," Potts said. "By having her awake, we could ask her to read some words."
The 27-year-old Lin was clamoring to climb again, and waited only two weeks after surgery to hit the gym — where she ran right into Dr. Potts.
"Oh, wait I know this face. Like, oh no. Like I shouldn't, he shouldn't see me here."
But Potts said while it may have been a little early, "If anything, it was great to see her doing so well."
Lin's seizures are now under control, and the right side of her body is back in action.
"Like a superhero movie moment," she said. "I felt like, oh, I have my strength back."
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