Elementary Teacher Fighting Brain Tumor After Birth Of 2nd Child
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Imagine this: You've just given birth to your second child. They notice something not quite right in your eye.
They perform an MRI and find a brain tumor.
That's exactly what happened to elementary school teacher Amanda Rasset two months ago.
Violet was born eight weeks ago. Mom remembers it well.
"It's like going from the best day of your life to the worst day of your life," Amanda Rasset said.
That's because after delivery they decided to check some discomfort she had experienced in her right eye during pregnancy.
"Someone came up to our hospital room to take me down for my MRI. About a half hour after that we found out the news that I had the brain tumor," she said.
"I think I was mostly in shock at first. I didn't know how to feel," said Amanda's husband Steve Rasset.
Rasset wants to be teaching her first grade class at Rockford Elementary Arts Magnet School. It's where her other family lives, and where she is a vital part.
"Amanda is a person who is a giver. She gives to her students, she gives to her team, she gives to the staff, she gives to this district. And she gives from the heart," said Rockford Elementary Arts Magnet School Principal Brenda Nyhus.
And that news on that night that she needed surgery on a brain tumor hit the entire school.
"It was really, really hard. Like I said, she's one of our family members, and she's dearly loved in this building," Nyhus said.
And so has begun another journey -- dealing with a brain tumor and being a mother to Violet and her 2 1/2-year-old brother. They are her motivation.
"We cried our cries and got as educated as we could to try to fight forward. I knew that holding this life in my arms, and you know I have a son too, I thought, 'This can't be the end for me. I have to fight this,'" Amanda Rasset said.
That is what they are doing as a family – fighting this, and understanding that it might be because of their daughter that they discovered the tumor at all.
"I truly believe that Violet's my angel baby. I was told that more than once from some of the surgeons, some of the doctors, some of the nurses," Amanda Rasset said.
They understand this new journey is going to have days when it's just difficult to figure it all out.
"I was trying to be as supportive as I could, and tried to be tough and not act scared," Steve Rasset said. "I was scared to death."
But what is easy to understand is how much these two children mean to them.
"Takes my mind off things. It's a reason to get up every morning and not worry about what's inside my head," Amanda Rasset said.
And what's easy to understand is what she means to her students and to her school.
"She is a person who could be like a daughter to me, and she and I have talked about that," Nyhus said.
"She's a very strong fighter. She'll never quit," Steve Rasset said. "That's what you need the whole time."
She will fight, because there is so much worth fighting for.
"Those two babies are what keep me fighting," Amanda Rasset said. "I'm not ready to give up on them."
Doctors believe they have stunted the tumor's growth, and while it can't be removed, they think they can keep it from growing. Rasset's next step is radiation.
