Carl’s Jr. model Emily Sears undergoes brain surgery while awake: ‘As strange and surreal as it sounds’

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Carl’s Jr. model Emily Sears revealed she underwent brain surgery last week.

The Australian star took to Instagram on Monday and revealed she was diagnosed last year with “a cavernous malformation, otherwise known as cavernoma, which is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels in the brain which cause epileptic seizures.”

According to the 35-year-old, the diagnosis came after “having a major seizure while shopping” last April.

“So, last Thursday, I had brain surgery!” Sears captioned a photo of herself in a hospital bed at UCLA’s neurosurgery unit. “I’ve delayed posting this because I don’t even know where to begin. The past year of my life is so hard to put into words. In April last year, I suddenly woke up in an ambulance being taken to hospital after having a major seizure while shopping. After a few days of tests, I was diagnosed as having a cavernous malformation, otherwise known as a cavernoma, which is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels in the brain which cause epileptic seizures.”

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“My whole life was put on hold from that point on from my work life to my social life, my relationship with my body and my identity,” Sears continued. “This past year has been a rollercoaster of the up and downs of having multiple seizures, side effects of medication trials and the emotional toll of everything in my world changing so suddenly.”

Sears said she chose to have the procedure in hopes of improving her quality of life.

“I chose to have this surgery because my choices came down to living on medication for the rest of my life, always living with the likelihood of having breakthrough seizures even while medicated - or going ahead with the craniotomy surgery,” said Sears. “Because the cavernoma was located in the front left temporal lobe, I risked losing my ability to speak as that is the speech function area of the human brain.”

Due to the location of the cavenorma, the surgery was done while Sears was awake.

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“Because of this; I was awake while they operated as I needed to be able to speak to make sure they didn’t remove any vital tissue along with the blood vessels,” Sears explained. “I remember every moment of being awake, there was 2 surgeons and one waved at me... it was as strange and surreal as it sounds!”

“Ultimately, this experience has changed my world view more than I could ever express, and the overall feeling I am left with is gratitude,” said Sears. “I have a deepened respect for the human body, the human mind and the human soul. I am humbly grateful for the ability to access healthcare, for the fact that my condition had a cure and for the support of my friends, family, industry peers and for my incredible man who has stuck by me the whole time.”

“I want to remind everyone that IG is never the whole picture of our lives,” added Sears. “You don’t know what people are going through - so always be kind. Thank you for the well wishes and love!”