Martha Kalifatidis went to bed with a migraine. It triggered the 'worst week of her life.'

Martha Kalifatidis has opened up about a traumatic health scare, where a doctor told her that her persistent migraines were because of a rare brain tumour.

In a two-part video series, titled "The Worst Week of My Life," shared on TikTok on May 29, Martha recounted how a post-Fashion Week migraine escalated into a nightmare.

Watch: Advice for 5 year old me with Martha Kalifatidis. Post continues below.

The MAFS alum began experiencing a severe migraine while flying back to Melbourne from Sydney, but despite its persistence, she initially didn't think much of it.

"I just jumped into bed," she said. "I thought nothing of it."

However, when the migraine continued for several days, her partner Michael Brunelli and her mother urged her to get it checked out. 

"I thought I was pregnant, I did a pregnancy test," she admitted. "I thought maybe it's period symptoms, but I've never had [migraines] as a period symptom."

Upon learning that Martha's migraine had lasted for days, her GP recommended a CAT scan, and that's when things took a turn for the worse.

When the results came back, the radiologist instructed Martha to stay on the bed, indicating they "might need to take more photos."

"I'm already sh***ing myself at this stage," said Martha. 

After pouring over the images, the radiologist told Martha that the consulting doctor wanted her to see her GP immediately, advising her not to "let it fall through the cracks."

@marthakalifatidis

Worst week if my life!

♬ original sound - Martha Kalifatidis

"Who says that to someone who’s just had a f***ing brain scan?" she questioned. "I'm so nervous and I just don't feel good with what I’ve heard so far. I just didn’t feel right."

After a gruelling few hours, the reality star received a phone call from her GP to discuss the results, who explained that a rare cyst was found in her brain.

"It’s called a colloid cyst and you need to go and see a neurosurgeon and have an MRI urgently," the doctor said.

A colloid cyst is a rare type of brain tumour in the fluid-filled cavities of the brain known as ventricles, and it is always non-cancerous. 

But that doesn't mean it wasn't terrifying. The news sent Martha spiralling as she worried about her young child and the uncertainty of being around to watch him grow up.

For a week following her diagnosis, Martha recounted being in a state of panic and unable to even look at her one-year-old son, Lucius.

"My life has just started. I just had a baby. My baby’s a year old."

"I was s**ting myself. I got the results on Tuesday. I spent all day on Wednesday cold-calling doctors and hospitals trying to get in, and I couldn’t get in anywhere," she said.

@marthakalifatidis Replying to @angelique ♬ original sound - Martha Kalifatidis

"It's so weird because I actually couldn’t even look at my baby that week.

"I couldn’t look at him, I couldn’t touch him, I couldn’t be around him. I just spent those days in my room alone," Martha stated.

To make matters worse, the neurosurgeon her GP had referred her to couldn't see Martha for another two weeks, despite her case being considered an emergency.

Knowing she couldn't wait two weeks for an appointment, Martha called another specialist and pleaded with the receptionist to be seen right away. 

"I called this one neurosurgeon's office and the receptionist answers, and she's like, 'Look darling, I'm so sorry but we are fully booked'. I'm like, 'Please, please can you help me? My baby is a year old and I need to look after him. I need to be ok.'"

Upon hearing the desperation in her voice, the receptionist managed to fit Martha in for an MRI the following day.

After the MRI, Martha was informed that she would need to undergo another CAT scan to provide the doctor with additional images of her brain.

"The sheer state of panic I was in. I just kept thinking everything was getting worse and worse... 'How is this happening? How is this real?' and just sitting in a hospital thinking all these things really intensifies it," she said.

Nervous and fearing the unknown, Martha was taken to her neurosurgeon's office who put her mind at ease by telling her she had "nothing to worry about".

"In the images, there are two little lumps in my brain. She’s like, 'OK, so you do have two calcium deposits in your brain that I can see in this photo', and I just started panicking because I don’t know what that means."

The doctor provided reassurance, reiterating that Martha was in good health and did not have a cyst. Instead, her migraines were likely the result of a pinched nerve in her neck. 

"I jumped up out of my seat. I was sitting on [my husband] Michael, hugging him [and] crying. Then we all had a little laugh about it and she suspects that I have a pinched nerve in my neck that is causing migraines. I still actually have the pinched nerve and the migraine," said Martha.

"I don’t have a colloid cyst, I’m perfectly healthy. There’s nothing wrong with any of the findings in my brain. [The doctor] said I can have a perfectly healthy, long life with calcium deposits in my brain and this weird artery. I am totally fine."

She then sent her love to everyone battling health issues, admitting that what she had just experienced was "the darkest, most scariest time of my life".

"The stress and just the anxiety and the panic that I went through, I don’t wish that on anyone. My poor family, my partner, my sister, everyone, my aunties, everyone who lived through this with me, I feel so sorry for them because everyone was so worried about me," she said.

"If you, or anyone that you know is going through something crazy like this, I just want to send you all the strength, all the courage because it is so hard and scary to go through something like this, to wake up everyday and just fight and just know that that’s your only option."

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