A groom missed his own wedding reception and blamed 'nerves' for giving him a horrendous migraine - only to discover two days later that he had a 'huge' tumour.
Nathan Vaughan, 30, married Katie Glass, 26, on May 4 at St Thomas Church, Holywell, Cambridgeshire, and the couple held their reception at The Old Ferry Boat Inn. The bridegroom started experiencing a 'painful' migraine in the early hours of the morning on his big day, but the couple assumed he was just 'feeling the pressure'.
However, straight after the wedding vows, the 30-year-old 'passed out' in his hotel for the entire day with the 'worst headache of [his] life', leaving his 'gutted' new wife without a first dance or cake cut. After Nathan's migraine persisted for three days, Katie drove her husband to A&E before they were told by doctor's he had a tumour near his brain and needed surgery.
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Despite the 'crazy' discovery disrupting the couple's £5,000 celebration, the pair are 'grateful' the tumour was identified and removed so quickly. Nathan, a financial crime investigator who lives in Manea, Cambridgeshire, said: "[For it to be] the wedding day of all days, it's crazy.
"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. 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.
"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. 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. I ended up just going to the hotel room and essentially just passing out for the evening. I was thinking 'I'm never going to live this down'. I had to go off ill on my wedding day.
"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." The newly wed was driven to A&E by his spouse on Monday 6 after his migraine hadn't cleared up before being rushed to hospital.
Doctors informed Nathan he had a haemorrhage in a benign tumour the size of two thumbnails and therefore, required surgery to remove it. Nathan said: "The Monday hit and I said 'I'm not feeling right'. I might need to go to A&E or something'. We got into the car and I got really bad shakes and it wouldn't stop. Katie ran me down to A&E and they ran tests and thought it might've been meningitis at first.
"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.
"It was a benign tumour thank god. It was a bit of a worry that it wasn't going to be. It's sort of a best case scenario. 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."
The hubby, who proposed to his partner on December 22 in front of St Michael's Mount, Cornwall, admitted the discovery was 'crazy' as he had just dismissed his pain as a migraine. Nathan said: "It's a bit crazy how I had all the symptoms of a migraine but it was something far more serious. I didn't even think about getting it looked at until it carried on three days later.
"I can imagine a lot of people would put it down to a headache and not think to get it looked at really. 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."
The couple, who have been together 10 years after they met working at WHSmith, are planning to re-do their wedding reception on their one year anniversary and have booked a honeymoon to 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."
The new bride admitted she was 'gutted' she didn't get to experience her wedding reception with her hubby but is 'grateful' Nathan's tumour was removed so quickly. Katie, who is a police officer, said: "At first I just thought he'd stressed himself out so much he'd made himself sick.
"I was gutted. I sent the photographer off and he said he'd do another photoshop for free. A month later we got all dressed up and took some more photos at the venue. I told the kitchen 'you might as well cut the cake' and I'd just get on with it. My dad did a dance with me at the end of the night, bless him.
"We felt incredibly guilty when we found out what it was. I thought it was just watch and wait. We thought it was a migraine. It was a weird time. I like looking at the pictures but at the same time it was a really weird day. Not what I imagined for my wedding day. I'm so grateful he was seen so early. If we had left it it would've really impacted his sight. We're quite lucky in that way."
