Valerie Camilli:  

Life I've been married to Fernando Camilli (a classmate) for 36 years and we have two children, Fernando Jr. age 35 and April age 27 and one grandson Fernando III age 8. We live in Rodeo in what's called the Highlands. I worked for the West Contra Costa School District (used to be Richmond Unified) for 20 years and I am now retired as of June 2009. I've traveled to Sweden, Norway, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Hawaii, and Mexico City and hope to go to Italy and Greece for the next big trip. Fernando (Fare) and I love to spend as much time with our grandson as possible. I have always said that he's the light of our life! 2009 brought many surprises to us, most of them not very good ones. I've had a herniated disc in my neck that goes back to 1994 with another disc herniating in 2001. Last March it started getting so bad I ended up with a migraine for days that wouldn't stop. After two trips to the ER and no luck with my workers comp insurance people, my husband decided to bring me to my general doctor. Since she's fairly new as my doctor she had me take an x-ray and a ct scan of my head/neck. Well about three hours after taking the ct scan I got a call from her telling me to go straight to the ER for a spinal tap because the scan showed a fairly large brain aneurysm. Talk about shocked!! So we went to the ER for the spinal to see if the aneurysm was leaking, and thank god it wasn't, which meant I had a little time on my side and I wouldn't have to have emergency surgery that day. After what felt like a million visits to neurologists, neurosurgeons, MRI's, an angiogram, and other tests my one large aneurysm had now multiplied to a total of 6 brain aneurysms!!! It seemed as though each time I took a test another aneurysm or two would show! I had a craniotomy on April 30th to remove 4 of the 6 aneurysms on the right side of my brain. I'm still recovering as I still have headaches 24/7 because they cut out about a 3" square of my skull and clipped off the four aneurysms. I also have short term memory loss which has started to improve, & a limited sense of smell which my doctor said could last up to a year or maybe I never will get it back. But I'm alive so I really can't complain. I was off work for 7 weeks for the surgery and recovery time. When I returned to my job, it was for a total of 1 week before my retirement! I basically spent the week packing my office for my departure. I am really enjoying my retirement and I'm glad I made the decision to do it. I still may have to have another surgery on the left side of my brain for the two remaining aneurysms there. My doctor wants me to take a brain MRI every March of every year so she can see if they are getting larger. If they don't, no surgery, but if they do, there I go again! It's weird how I never once worried about having the surgery, I felt so much confidence in my surgeon. The one thing that bothered me the most was how much hair were they going to shave off!! Talk about vanity! It has been growing back quite well, so I shouldn't complain. But like I said bef...Expand for more