At 37, Amanda Hyne was juggling life with two young children—an 18-month-old and a 4-year-old—when her symptoms first appeared.
“They’re incredible and so much fun, but it’s definitely a lot to manage,” she shared with The Post. “There’s a lot on my plate.”
Working as a clinical social worker at Mount Sinai’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Amanda thought she was simply battling a stubborn cold amid the chaos of parenting.
“But by the end of October, things started to get much worse,” she recalled.
“The fatigue was becoming overwhelming,” she explained.
That fall, while on a work trip to Australia with her husband—a passionate surfer—the headaches grew more intense.
“I reached the point where I needed to take Excedrin at least once a day just to get through the day and even to get out of bed,” she said.
“It was horrible — almost like having a labor contraction in my head or someone stabbing me with an ice pick,” she said.
But when she returned home, her condition only deteriorated.
“I would wake up feeling awful,” she shared.
“No matter how much I slept, nothing helped. I’d go to work, see patients, care for the kids with my husband at night, and try to go to bed by eight. But it was like Groundhog Day — I’d wake up feeling miserable all over again.”
“I couldn’t even manage to go downstairs to get myself a yogurt for lunch,” she added. “It was that debilitating.”
At the time, she blamed it on the stress of juggling motherhood and a full-time job.
“I thought, what choice do I have? I feel awful, but the kids still need me, and my work still has to get done,” she said.
Her primary care doctor referred her to Dr. Rachel Colman, a neurologist who used to work at Mount Sinai and now practices near Amanda’s home in Connecticut. Although Dr. Colman suspected chronic migraines—worsened by daily Excedrin use—she ordered an MRI just to be safe.
It turned out to be more than migraines.
Both Amanda and Dr. Colman were stunned to learn she had a massive hemangioblastoma, a rare type of brain tumor.
Amanda “Mandy” Hyne, 37, pictured with her neurosurgeon Dr. Raj Shrivastava during her six-month follow-up appointment on July 8, 2025, at Mount Sinai in New York City, after successful brain tumor removal surgery.
Although the tumor was benign, it was causing damage. It blocked fluid drainage and shifted her brain away from the center of her skull.
Fortunately, Amanda felt confident in her care. Her doctor referred her to Dr. Raj Shrivastava, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai, who saw her right away.
“They took it very seriously,” Hyne said. “They told me, ‘It’s a good thing you came in when you did,’ but without using scare tactics.”
She was reassured: “We’re going to figure this out, there’s a plan, and here’s what we’re going to do.”
Just two weeks after her February MRI, Amanda had surgery to remove the 5-centimeter tumor.
“The speed of everything—from the MRI to the results, the surgery appointment, and scheduling—was incredible,” she said. “That quick response gave me a lot of confidence that my doctors were taking it seriously. But, honestly, it was scary.”
Amanda wants women everywhere to know it’s okay to listen to their pain and take it seriously.
“I know how easy it is, especially for women, to be hard on themselves,” she said, recalling times when she wondered if she simply wasn’t “cut out to do it all.”
“I thought I was managing everything well, but I still felt awful. So, what do you give up at that point?”
These days, she’s doing well. A few months later, she’s back to working full time and has even started running again.
She said, “I think he took it really seriously, and I was truly grateful for that.”“I’m doing great and still recovering,” she said. “I do get tired sometimes, but it’s a different kind of tired — before, it was like ‘there’s no end in sight, I could sleep for five days.’”
“Now, I’m tired because I’m healing and staying busy, but when I sleep, I wake up feeling better.”
“I’m headache-free, which is such a relief,” she added. “I can get through the day and still have energy left for fun things.”
If there’s one key message Amanda wants people to remember, it’s to pay attention to their bodies.
“It’s so important,” she said. “If something feels off, don’t ignore it—ask questions, get checked out, and find healthcare providers who listen and take you seriously.”
