Groom had ‘worst headache of his life’ that ended up being something way more sinister that ‘popped’ on his wedding day
30 year old Nathan Vaughan thought he had the worst migraine of all time on his wedding day back in May - but it turned out to be an incredibly severe health issue.
Nathan married his wife, Katie Vaughan (nee Glass) earlier this year in Cambridgeshire, and was ready for the best day of his life to begin.
Unfortunately, in the early hours of 4 May, he began to experience a painful migraine that he chalked up to jitters.
Nathan, a financial crime investigator, recounted: "Everything prior had been fine, no problems at all. The morning of the wedding I woke up with a cracking headache at 2am and couldn't go back to sleep."
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"I took pain killers, migraine tablets and assumed it was wedding day nerves, feeling the pressure a little bit. But it wouldn't shift and progressively got worse during the day."
By the time the wedding ceremony rolled around, people noticed his condition was getting progressively worse.
"The ceremony came around and I put all my effort into being present for the ceremony. We got through the ceremony and we had some photos," Nathan explained.
"The photographer noticed I was a bit off and said 'are you alright?' - I shut my eyes without even realising.
"I popped to the reception and said 'I think I've got to go to bed or something. I feel absolutely awful'. It was the worst headache of my life, just constant pain in the top of my head."
He then had to take himself to bed on his own wedding day - something he remembers thinking he'd 'never live down'.
Nathan continued: "My first thought was 'my wife is by herself on our wedding day'. I'm laying upstairs wrapped with guilt that I'd left her alone."
"My wife did brilliantly and held it all together and kept the reception going. It was like having a massive hangover without touching a single drop of alcohol. It was awful.
"I'm so grateful I got to see my wife walk down the aisle. It was a lovely ceremony. I do remember it. It was still a great day, all things aside."
Nathan's perceived migraine persisted for three days, leading Katie to drive her new husband to A&E - where he received earth shattering news.
He explained: "They did a CT scan and said I had swelling on my pituitary gland, which sits on the brain. I thought it was just swelling and that they'd give me something to bring it down and off I'd go.
"But I got whisked off to hospital and at 2am or 3am I was told I had a huge pituitary gland tumour.
"It haemorrhaged in the morning [of my wedding] so I was bleeding in my brain. I was going to have surgery in a few hours. They had to operate because it was pushing against my optic nerve and that was why my vision was off.
"The next day I had a four hour operation to remove this tumour. They told me I'd probably had it my whole life. I wouldn't have known about it. On the day of the wedding, of all days, it decided to pop essentially."
Thankfully, the tumour was benign.
Nathan said: "It could've been a lot worse. As soon as you hear the word 'tumour' from the doctor's you assume the worst.
"I don't think Katie realised how soon after saying 'in sickness and in health' that she'd be looking after me. It's a long recovery process."
Ultimately, Nathan is just relieved the wedding went ahead.
He said: "If it happened the day before, the wedding wouldn't have gone ahead and if it happened the day after I would've put it down to a hangover from drinking and probably wouldn't have got it looked at.
"It's far better to get it looked at. I didn't have any clue about pituitary glands up until this point.
"Apparently quite a lot of people would have it and not realise it. They could go through their whole life and not have symptoms but in my case it got so big it was causing me issues."
To make up for his early night, the couple are planning another ceremony in Kos, Greece.
Nathan said: "We're planning on our one year anniversary to invite everyone back and essentially everything we missed we'll do on the anniversary.
"Do our first dance a year later and do my speech and a cake cutting. Better late than never.
"Luckily we didn't plan a honeymoon. I wasn't able to fly after that operation. We've booked it now for next year. It's something to look forward to. Blue skies, beaches and hopefully migraine free."
Kya Buller