When Kristen Stewart was diagnosed with brain cancer, she started blogging about her treatment and recovery. She recently spoke with our writer Paul Wynn about how her blog turned into a book.

Three years ago, I was a total fitness nut—and proud of it. I never missed a day at the gym. I was strong, happy, and enjoying life in Manhattan. I had a rewarding job at a matchmaking agency, helping other single people find love. Then out of the blue, unusual things started happening. I had trouble forming sentences, reading emails, and thinking clearly. I also began experiencing intense, throbbing pain in my head. On a day that I had 48 episodes of head pain in 48 hours, my roommate took me to the emergency department. Once there, I underwent an MRI, which revealed a large brain tumor called a grade II glioma. I was shocked and frightened.

I was scheduled for emergency surgery on February 4, 2019, a few weeks shy of my 28th birthday. During the four-hour surgery, I had to stay awake to answer questions so the surgeons could monitor my brain activity. My strongest memory is the sound and feeling of a drill near my ear. When the operation was over, I had more than 40 staples in my head, my left eye drooped, I had double vision—and a portion of the tumor remained. Removing the whole mass proved too risky as it might have affected my vision or speech. Two weeks later, I moved to a rehabilitation center to start physical, occupational, and cognitive therapy.

Almost three months after my surgery, I started oral chemotherapy and targeted radiation to shrink what was left of the tumor. At the advice of my doctors, I also froze some of my eggs in case the treatment caused infertility.

Throughout my ordeal, I maintained a blog to keep my family and friends updated. I nicknamed my hospital room The Penthouse because of its panoramic views, large space, and huge TV. My family temporarily set up camp there for a week. My mom slept on the tiny couch and my brother and sister-in-law stopped by every night with food and beverages. We ordered wings and watched the 2019 Super Bowl one weekend and the Grammy Awards the following weekend.

So many people told me they loved my posts. They said the updates made them laugh and cry. Invariably, they’d say, "You should write a book.” I took them at their word and compiled all my blog posts into a self-published book called My Brainstorm. I tried to capture the details of my surgery and nine months of recovery.

When I returned to work less than a year after my operation, my boss was extremely understanding and started me off with fewer responsibilities. Today, I feel physically strong, but my short-term memory is poor. I rely on alarms to remind me when I need to leave my apartment for an exercise class or dinner with friends.

Every three months, I get an MRI to monitor the tumor and cross my fingers that it hasn’t grown. After every scan, I breathe a sigh of relief and remember my goals: to fall in love, use those frozen eggs to raise a family, grow old, and look back on this life-changing experience with gratitude. –As told to Paul Wynn