DENVER — For a period of two years, Diana thought she was just getting forgetful. She had trouble thinking and kept repeating herself.
When her vision started to deteriorate, she went to Denver Health looking for answers.
"They were like, 'We don’t need to look at your eyes. We need to look at your brain,'" she said.
Dr. Fabio Grassia, a neurosurgeon at Denver Health, found a tumor about 8 centimeters in size in her left temporal lobe.
"Tumor is so big you need to tailor, usually, the procedure to the patient," Grassia said.
Before her surgery on Monday, Diana gave Grassia a request.
"She told me, you know, 'I want to sing for my children for Christmas,'" Grassia said.
Diana said singing is a passion of hers.
"I sing, and I always sing and I love to sing," she said.
Grassia decided to do something he's never done before at Denver Health: he kept her awake and pain-free during surgery so she could sing while he was removing part of the tumor.
"I was like, 'Really? I could sing?'" Diana said.
The neurosurgeon said this was to make sure he wasn't damaging the part of her brain she uses to sing.
"The best way to see if the function is still there and just ask the patient to make the sound or just the function, in this case we’re singing the song while I’m actively resecting the part of the brain," Grassia said.
She sang a Lady Gaga song called "Always Remember Us This Way," which is one of her favorites.
> Watch: Patient sings to Lady Gaga during brain surgery
"This way, so, I'm testing her memory. I'm testing her intonation," Grassia said. "She started singing, in the meantime I can stimulate and resect, and this allowed me to do a good resection."
He also did a good duet, according to Diana.
"We just started singing together and he recorded it and it just came out so good," she said.
The doctor said the surgery was good, too.
"Everything is so clear now," she said. "So, I'm happy for that."
Grassia is happy Diana can sing to her kids on Christmas.
"It's very emotional. Yeah, it's incredible," Grassia said.
Diana said her brain issues have made it difficult for her to work over the past couple of years. Friends and family have created a GoFundMe to help her with expenses.
Diana still has a long way to go in her recovery, Grassia said, and she still may need another surgery. But for now, she said she is thankful the doctor discovered the brain tumor so she can look forward to improving her health and her life.
"I think everything was meant to happen for a reason," she said. "I’m so happy I’m here to be able to explain all this to everybody."
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