Resilience Through Challenges
- Shauna Rae is a 23-year-old with pituitary dwarfism who stands at 3-feet-10-inches tall. Her dwarfism was caused by treatment for a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma as a child.
- She recently shared that someone had falsely reported her social media account for being managed by someone underage. But she didn’t let it get her down.
- Shauna has a message for the person who reported her account: “I will keep appealing any age request things you keep sending my way because I am a legal adult and if you can’t handle that that’s not my fault.”
- Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer that, technically, has no cure. But one of our experts says a diagnosis does not mean there is no hope and new therapies are being researched.
- Building resiliance can help you face challenges with strength and confidence. And our experts add it can help improve outcomes when fighting health battles.
Shauna is the star of TLC’s “I Am Shauna Rae.” Standing at 3-feet-10-inches tall, the 23-year-old lives with pituitary dwarfism – a condition also called growth hormone deficiency (GHD) or dwarfism that’s caused by insufficient amounts of growth hormone in the body. Pituitary dwarfism in children leads to abnormally short stature with normal body proportions, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Read More“Whoever reported me for being underage, I really hope you get what’s coming to you because that’s just rude,” she said in the video. “We all know I’m an adult, we all know that I put content on my social medias to raise awareness about pituitary dwarfism and dwarfism in general, so whoever reported me for being under the age of 13, I really hope you have an amazing day.” Despite the frustrating situation, Shauna was happy to have her account back and decided to take the high road. Resilience: Staying Positive Despite Adversity “I hope that you realize that you were just being a rude person for no reason, and I hope that hopefully whatever fueled this hate goes away because you deserve love and happiness,” she said. “But I just want everyone to know my TikTok is back up and running.” “I will keep appealing any age request things you keep sending my way because I am a legal adult and if you can’t handle that that’s not my fault.”@shaunarae99 To the human who reported my tiktok. Thank you for the content. Being serious though not necessary and it just shows how rude people can be. We are all human and we are añl different its time to realize this and respect humans for who they are. Raise love and acceptance not hate and anger! #shaunaraeadventure #iamshaunarar #iamshaunarae #tlcshaunarae #fypシ゚viral #fyp #fy #fypage #shaunaraeadventures #shauna #fypシ #shaunarae #tlciamshaunarae #tiktokban #bannedaccount #youtried #ha #kindnessovereverything ♬ Rich Minion – Yeat
What Kind of Brain Cancer Did Shauna Rae Have?
There are many different types of brain cancer, but Shauna Rae’s type of brain cancer was a grade 4 malignant glioma, also called glioblastoma. Gliomas are a type of tumor that develop in the brain and spinal cord.According to Penn Medicine, the symptoms of glioblastoma, or glioblastoma multiforme, vary depending upon the location and size of the tumor and many are related to brain swelling and increased pressure within the brain.
Symptoms of glioblastoma multiforme include:
- Headache
- Seizures
- Nausea and vomiting
- Drowsiness
- Changes in personality
- Weakness on one side of the body
- Memory loss
- Speech difficulty
- Changes in vision
In addition, Penn Medicine says tumors in “eloquent” areas of the brain (vital functional areas) are likely to present with symptoms like difficulty with language, vision, or weakness.
Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer. It’s considered the most aggressive primary brain tumor and doesn’t technically have a cure, but treatment options include surgery, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery (a type of radiation therapy).
Clinical trials can also be a good option for some, and research is ongoing.
“You are not dead just because you’ve been diagnosed with a glioblastoma,” Dr. Henry Friedman, a neuro-oncologist at the Duke Cancer Center Brain Tumor Clinic, previously told SurvivorNet.
Dr. Friedman and his Duke colleagues are looking into a therapy for glioblastoma that combines the modified poliovirus and immunotherapy.
“The modified poliovirus is used to treat this tumor, by injecting it directly into the tumor, through a catheter. It is designed to lyse the tumor and cause the tumor cells to basically break up” he said. “I think that the modified poliovirus is going to be a game-changer in glioblastoma… but I should also say that its reach is now extending into melanoma soon to bladder cancer.”
Can Cell Phones & 5G Cause Cancer? A Leading Brain Cancer Doctor Says “No”
Staying Strong Through Adversity
Shauna Rae is an incredible example of how to stay strong and build resilience in the face of challenges — whether from health or society.
Our experts agree that a positive outlook matters when it comes to battling health challenges.
Dr. Zuri Murrell, an oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spoke to SurvivorNet about the role of a positive outlook on survival rates: “I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life.”
Resilience is an important trait, but not the easiest to build. The ultimate goal is not to avoid tough times, but to be able to bounce back from them. And yet, when they are faced with an overwhelming, life-changing situation, how do people shift their view? How do they learn to see the problem as temporary, rather than permanent, and figure out a solution?
It’s complicated, because building resilience is more about your mental and emotional fortitude than anything else.
According to the American Psychological Association, “the resources and skills associated with more positive adaptation (i.e., greater resilience) can be cultivated and practiced.”
In other words, resilience is not something you’re born with, which should be encouraging. Instead, after every challenge in your life, you build more and more resilience to those hard times.
You can build resilience the way you build muscle – through patience and steady exercise of the skill. Here are some lessons we’ve learned from Fischer, Runkel, and Soller in SurvivorNetTV’s extraordinary film “Resilience“:
- Be willing to learn. If one way doesn’t work, find a different way. If an obstacle lands in your way, build a path around it – or over it. In Resilience, one of the athletes says, “You always have to be learning. Otherwise, life gets stagnant.” The more you learn, the more you grow – and growth is a sign of resilience.
- Spend time with people who inspire you. Our world is filled with people who overcome challenges, and their success can energize you to overcome your own. Think about famous people who hava faced adversity and did not give up – Stephen King actually threw his manuscript, Carrie, in the trash because it had been rejected by publishers so many times. His wife encouraged him to keep sending it out, and he finally sold it in 1974 – launching a massively successful career as a novelist. Take the time to read and learn about the lives of Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, Bethany Hamilton, Nelson Mandela, and others.
- Allow yourself to grieve. Don’t push away or dismiss your frustration and sadness. Ben Fischer says that life can be filled with lots of crying, but “Those cries make us stronger.”
- Be flexible. Abandon the idea that there is only one solution or that you must stick to your original plan. The best solution or plan is the one that eventually works. You may need to change your original plan as the circumstances change.
- Lean in to your community. Your friends, colleagues, and family are invaluable, and when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed by a problem, their support can carry you. The Harvard Study of Adult Development is the longest study of human well-being. Many news outlets have covered its results, which show that maintaining strong, healthy relationships helped people live longer lives. Psychiatrist and author Dr. Samantha Boardman tells SurvivorNet that connecting with and contributing to the lives of other people are two of “the three wellsprings of vitality” (the third is feeling positively challenged).
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.