Trumpets and horns sound throughout the Oglethorpe County Middle School band room. Notes blend and provide a harmonious sound.
For one student, though, it wasn’t pleasant.
Macie McDaniel, a 2024 OCHS alum from Lexington, said she had migraines almost every day in band class.
“It was hard for me to stay in the room because of the noise,” Macie said. “It was just so overstimulating.”
Then, other symptoms started showing up. With help from videos on TikTok, Macie started to guess her symptoms correlated with a brain tumor.
She said she was 16 years old when she had this realization. A year and a half later, doctors proved her right.
Macie was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in 2022. Fortunately, they’re not commonly cancerous.
“Cancer was never really a concern, but a more worrisome type of pituitary tumor was,” said Christan McDaniel, Macie’s mother. “We never thought this was something that Macie could die from, but we were very concerned with how this could affect her everyday life.”
The tumor continued to grow in her last years of high school, but it didn’t slow her down. Macie was the cheer captain at OCHS her senior year, and when she graduated, she was the valedictorian and STAR student of her class.
As the tumor continued to grow, her doctor decided it would be best to have surgery and remove it.
The McDaniels were referred to Dr. Nelson Oyesiku, who at the time was the chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of North Carolina. His professionalism and tenure made the process easier, especially for Macie’s mom.
“His extensive experience in treating pituitary tumors gave me great confidence that she was receiving the highest level of care,” Christan McDaniel said. “That reassurance made the entire process a little easier to navigate.”
Once Macie was through the surgery, she didn’t let her experience slow her down.
“I didn’t want it to define me,” Macie said. “I wanted to use it as a way to motivate me to go further and to be better than I thought I could’ve been before.”
It’s been over a year since her surgery, and she continues to excel.
Macie is a second-year student at the University of Georgia, double majoring in criminal justice and political science with a focus in courts, justice and the law. She was also recently accepted to become a Franklin College ambassador.
She said she chose to go into criminal justice and law because it will give her the ability to serve others.
“I’ve always wanted to help people,” Macie said. “That has always been my goal in life, so finding a course where I could help people was important to me.”
She also continues to help people outside the classroom. Soon after surgery, she decided to start posting TikToks discussing her journey; she sees it as a way to easily spread advice for people going through the same thing she did.
Her biggest piece of advice is to value your family. She credits her mom, dad and sister for helping her get through it.
“It’s better to not pity yourself; just be open and talk to people,” Macie said. “Just lean on everyone. Everyone cares about you more than you think they do.”