I thought I was just stressed — I had a massive brain tumor

Amanda Hyne, 37, had two young children — 18 months and 4 at the time — when her symptoms began.

“They’re amazing and they are so much fun, but it’s a lot,” she told The Post. “It’s a lot to juggle.“

She was a clinical social worker at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Mount Sinai, and — between that and the kids — she thought she might have a cold that just wasn’t going away.

“End of October, it started getting a lot worse,” she said.

“The fatigue was starting to get really bad,” she said.

That fall, she took a work trip to Australia with her husband — an avid surfer — when the headaches became more severe.

“I was getting to that point to take Excedrin at least one time every day in order to function, in order to kind of get out of bed,” she said.

“And it was awful — like literally almost like a labor contraction in my head or somebody taking an ice pick and just stabbing me in the head.”

When she got back home, things only got worse.

“I would wake up and feel miserable,” she said.

“No amount of sleep that I got would help. I would literally work, see patients, take care of the kids at night with my husband and then try to go to bed at eight. Nothing would help. I would wake up and it was like Groundhog Day — and I would just feel miserable again.”

“Couldn’t even go down to get myself a yogurt for lunch,” she added. “It was that debilitating.”

At the time, she chopped it up to the stress of being a mom with a full-time job.

“I was like, what choice do I have? I feel bad but the kids still need parenting and my job still needs to get done,” she said.

Her PCP referred her to a neurologist in Connecticut.

“I think he took [it] really seriously, which I was really grateful for,” she said.

It turned out she had a massive brain tumor. Luckily, she felt like she was in good hands.

“They took it very seriously — [they told me,] ‘It’s a good thing you came in when you did,’ but also didn’t resort to scare tactics.”

She was told: “We’re going to figure this out and there’s a plan and here’s what we’re going to do.”

They did the best they could to mollify the whole process.

“Just how fast everything moved, from the MRI, to the results, to the surgery appointment, to scheduling — everything was so fast and that gave me a lot of confidence that these are providers who are taking it seriously,” she said. “But it was scary.”

Hyne wants women everywhere to know it’s OK to take your pain seriously.

“I know how easy it is, I think for women in particular, to kind of get down on themselves,” she said, remembering how she would wonder if she just wasn’t “cut out to do all the things.”

“And I thought I was doing all the things well, and now maybe I can, but I feel horrible. And what’s got to give at that point?”

And she’s doing fine now, by the way.

“I’m great and still recovering, so I still get tired sometimes but a different kind of tired than I was — like that tired was ‘there’s no end in sight I could sleep for five days,’” she said.

“[Now] I’m tired because I’m recovering and I’m doing a lot — but when I sleep, I wake up and I feel better.

“I’m headache-free, which is It’s really nice,” she added. “I can get through the day and still be able to have time and do things that are fun.“

If there’s one thing she would like people to take away from her story, it’s to listen to their bodies.

“It’s important to do that,” she said. “And if something doesn’t feel right, ask, get checked out, figure out what’s going on. Seek providers who listen to you and take you seriously.”