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A beauty blogger was awake throughout her open brain surgery. She filmed it.

Only two months ago, US beauty vlogger Courtney Warner was diagnosed with stage three brain cancer.

Now she’s undergone brain surgery to remove the tumour—and shared a video of the operation with her 135,000 YouTube subscribers.

The 26-year-old, who goes by the name of Courtelizz1, introduces her tape by explaining why she’s shared it.

“I wanted to film everything about the surgery and everything like that,” Warner says. “I wanted to show you guys how it was for me, all the way from the beginning, all the way to the end. From my perspective.”

She also issues a warning that while there is no blood or brain shown (the operative side of the surgery is hidden behind blue sheets), the footage can still be tough to watch in parts.

Warner received local anaesthetic for the operation, meaning she is fully conscious and talking to the camera and her doctors throughout.

Speech mapping is also used during the operation, with Warner performing speech and recall exercises with a therapist throughout the procedure.

“I had to talk the whole time,” she explains in the introduction. “There is one time during the operation where I had a seizure [mid-sentence]. It’s not very horrible to watch. You just see my face freaking out and not knowing what to say.”

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A post shared by C O U R T N E Y. ???? (@courtelizz1) on

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The beauty vlogger and middle-school teacher says she was scared going into the operating theater but says the operation was successful.

“I remember seeing the [operating room] and thinking ‘Oh my God, this is actually happening right now.’ It was just nuts. There were just so many people there and all for me.”

The doctors were able to remove 95 per cent of Warner’s brain tumour. The rest, she says, will be treated with chemotherapy.

Her video has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

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