{"id":31656,"date":"2022-09-04T08:51:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T15:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000028129"},"modified":"2022-09-04T08:51:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-04T15:51:43","slug":"poly-high-seniors-near-fatal-health-condition-inspired-her-to-publish-cookbook-for-good-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/poly-high-seniors-near-fatal-health-condition-inspired-her-to-publish-cookbook-for-good-cause","title":{"rendered":"Poly High senior’s near-fatal health condition inspired her to publish cookbook for good cause"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney McKeever, 17, had always enjoyed cooking for herself and her family, but last year spending time in the kitchen became her tether to normalcy.<\/p>\n

In March 2021, just before her 16th birthday, McKeever was exercising at her family home in Belmont Heights when she suddenly became very sick with excruciating headaches and relentless vomiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really scary because we didn\u2019t know what was going on for a really long time,\u201d McKeever recalled. \u201cI thought I had food poisoning at first.\u201d<\/p>\n

After days of intense symptoms and repeated visits to the emergency room, doctors discovered that McKeever had suffered a brain hemorrhage. Recovery kept her in the hospital for two weeks and bedridden for a month.<\/p>\n

The Poly High School student’s once bustling schedule, crammed with AP classes, Girl Scouts meetings, volleyball and shopping with her friends, came to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I could really do was walk around my house and that\u2019s when I really started cooking again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To pass the time, McKeever would cook some of her parent\u2019s favorite meals. And as she chopped garlic, diced vegetables and experimented with herbs, she leaned into the exercise was a way to keep her mind off difficult choices she faced.<\/p>\n

McKeever had survived the hemorrhage with minimal damage to the \u201celoquent\u201d region of her brain\u2014the part responsible for learning, working memory and speech\u2014that with work, could be mitigated over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m extremely lucky,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people lose the ability to speak for a while. They lose motor functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McKeever\u2019s luck was short-lived. She was diagnosed with an AVM, or arteriovenous malformation, a rare and often life-threatening condition that occurs when a group of blood vessels in the brain form incorrectly. As if often the case with AVMs, McKeever had developed the condition during infancy and had gone undiagnosed until the hemorrhage.<\/p>\n

This condition meant McKeever was very likely to have another brain hemorrhage. And a second time, doctors believed she wouldn\u2019t be so lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer AVM was placed in her left hemisphere, but it was next on the edge of a structure called the hippocampus, which is the learning center of your brain, the ability to learn new information,\u201d McKeever\u2019s mom, Xantha, said. \u201cSo, it was in a really critical spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKeever’s options were few, and each presented serious risks. Brain surgery, which was one of the options, could potentially cause new harm to her speech and memory, even her vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t be able to drive, play sports, do her life\u2019s dream which, ironically, had for a couple years been to be a doctor or some kind of medical professional,\u201d Xantha explained.<\/p>\n

Radiosurgery, though, would leave her vulnerable for a yearlong period to a bleed again in the spot she had already hemorrhaged, potentially killing her.<\/p>\n

They opted for brain surgery. But just before the procedure, doctors discovered the AVM had disappeared, something that can happen in rare cases, Xantha explained. Months later, though, doctors found that the AVM had returned. This time the family went for radiosurgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the best option and the doctors were such a comfort to me,\u201d McKeever said.<\/p>\n

Through months of deliberation, treatments and after the surgery, McKeever kept cooking, culminating in what would become her cookbook, \u201cThe Vegetarian Cookbook for People Who Don\u2019t Like Vegetables,\u201d that she self-published<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

The cookbook features over 20 vegetarian and vegan-friendly recipes, the meals originally inspired by her dad\u2019s switch to veganism years ago. The recipes are simple and easy to follow and include health facts about a single ingredient in each recipe.<\/p>\n

McKeever said her mother\u2019s favorite is the chickpea cheese quesadilla; her father\u2019s favorite is the cashew alfredo pasta. McKeever is partial to the red lentil soup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets me every time because it’s so warm and comforting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sydney McKeever cookbook with her recipes and photos that she published in Long Beach Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Putting the book together was a pet project at first, but McKeever saw potential to do more. McKeever will be donating 100% of the sales to the Joe Niekro Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to supporting AVM patients and their families. The foundation, she explained, was an invaluable resource for her family as they navigated her treatment.<\/p>\n

McKeever is also working on a website, as part of her Gold Award challenge with the Girl Scouts, that will include a wealth of information about AVM\u2019s and treatment resources that she and her mother had compiled over the last year.<\/p>\n

McKeever is now in the home stretch of her journey and treatment from radiosurgery. Come December, McKeever will know for sure if she\u2019s fully healed from her AVM. Though the experience was at times harrowing, McKeever said what she’s learned through it was only positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs cheesy as it sounds, I got to focus on what really matters in my life. I\u2019m someone who is very intense about schoolwork and trying to achieve results,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving the brain hemorrhage and having all my family and friends be amazing just showed me how much the connections I\u2019ve made with people meant to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the Poly High PACE student still has big plans. McKeever said she intends to study neuroscience, in hopes that she can help other people who may go through her experience someday.<\/p>\n

And as for her big December date? She\u2019s keeping it simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we might go out to dinner or at least have ice cream or something kind of special,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McKeever’s book, <\/em>“The Vegetarian Cookbook For Those Who Don’t Like Vegetables,” costs $16 and is available for purchase on Amazon, click here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After suffering a serious brain hemorrhage, Poly High senior Sydney McKeever found comfort in cooking. She wrote a cookbook she’s selling to raise money for a nonprofit that specializes in helping others with her condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":72136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1063],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[8767],"class_list":["post-31656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-books","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31656"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=31656"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=31656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}