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My Story of The Start of My Battle With Brain Cancer

On June 8th, 2017, I went to work just like any normal day. Everything was going fine and I was preparing for the next week for some new release product to come in to the store. At approximately 11:00 AM I went to lunch. Little did I know that the events that were about to unfold within the 10-15 minutes were going to change my life forever.

I was sitting on a bench outside of the mall and was smoking a cigarette before I was going to go back in to cook my lunch. I suddenly began to experience tunnel vision that slowly turned into complete darkness. During this period while my vision was transitioning to total darkness, I had the worst feelings come over me. There were these aggressive negative thoughts that began to creep through my mind (I can’t remember exactly what the thoughts were, I just remember them being extremely negative and one after another) as I tried to move from one negative thought another more negative thought would come through my mind. Then was the blackout (or seizure if you will).

During the seizure, I was blacked out and don’t remember the following; I used deductive reasoning to figure out what happened. I attempted to get off the bench I was sitting on and fell into something hitting my right upper corner of my eye socket that caused a hemorrhage in my right eye. I then fell to the left where I busted the left side of my jaw. When my jaw hit, it caused me to bite down and I bit a hole in the right side of my tongue.

This next part I have no recollection of. It was described to me by a co-worker that came out after being notified by a mall employee of the events that were transpiring outside of the mall.

The mall employee notified my coworker that “an employee that we believe to work at your store is outside stumbling around.” When the coworker went outside they found me covered in blood stumbling toward the parking garage and no one was trying to help me or stop me from meandering around. (Keep in mind this is a mall in the higher class area of Nashville and my appearance: scraggly beard, bloody, and the fact that I was covered in dirt from falling, probably made me look like a homeless person. One that was possibly drunk or on drugs because of the stumbling that was caused by my loss of consciousness.) The coworker knew something was up, grabbed my sweatshirt and brought me back to the bench. Another coworker was notified and they came out and contacted emergency services. While the first coworker had me on the bench, my eyes kept rolling into the back of my skull and they kept trying to bring me back to consciousness. None of this I remember. This was all told to me by the one who found me.

I do have flashes of people trying to help me. The first flash is my manager calling 911. The second flash is a coworker asking the password to my phone and if one of my ICE (in case of emergency) contacts was my wife. The next was a mall security guard holding me up by a trashcan as I was dry heaving. The last two were of the EMTs that came. The first of these, was them asking me questions that I know I knew the answers to, but couldn't seem to find them in my mind (let alone find a way to speak). The second, was in the ambulance as they were taking me to the hospital.

I don’t remember anything about being in the ER. I remember bits and pieces of being in ICU. I remember that we needed to get my piercings out in order to get the MRI and the nurse was struggling with them (they were kind of cross-threaded from being so old and to keep them from falling out). I was able to get them out (not too bad for being half conscious). I don’t remember going for the CT scan, but I do remember being taken for the MRI.

During the MRI they found a mass in my left temporal lobe (they described it like a cloud shaped mass). At some point during all of this, they put me on anti-seizure medication to keep me from having another seizure. I explained to them that I was having some issues with my teeth and thought that it may be an abscess.

On June 9th, 2017, they ordered a spinal tap to be performed to make sure the mass was not an abscess or infection in my brain (if only it were so easy). After 5 days of stay in the ICU and the neurology unit. The tests came back negative. So they moved on to the next test of determining what the mass could be.

On June 13th, 2017, I under went a surgical biopsy to get a sample of the mass(which involved a dime size hole being drilled into my skull). While performing the biopsy, they performed an immediate test to make sure it wasn’t an abscess or infection (a double check that it just hadn’t made it to my spinal fluid yet) which turned out negative. Then there was the two week wait for the analysis of the tissue extracted and the possible treatment plan to be developed by the UNITY team at St. Thomas.

During the wait, I saw my general practitioner on June 21st, 2017. At this visit, I was put on anti-anxiety medication to reduce stress/emotional levels that were heightened as a side effect of the seizure. Which I have to say, has been a great aid to getting my mind back to normal.

On June 27th, 2017, I had the follow up visit for my biopsy. During this visit is where I was told I have brain cancer. To be exact the mass is oligodendroglioma. Which to explain, comes from oligodendrocytes, one of the types of cells that make up the supportive tissue, or glial, tissue of the brain. Using the old cancer staging system, the tumor is between stages 1 and 2. The doctor continued to say that it was a favorable diagnosis due to the genetics of the tumor and could be treated. Based on my age, health, and support system, they plan on performing an aggressive treatment to address this issue. The treatment is going to involve surgery to remove (hopefully) 90%+ of the tumor and then a round of chemo and/or radiation therapy.

The steps of the plan:

1. Obtain a functional MRI (test the brain to map out areas that control speech, vision, mobility, and personality). Due to me being right handed, the left temporal lobe (where the mass is) contains all these features. This will help for the next step. This is supposed to be scheduled within the next 2 weeks.

2. Surgery. Remove as much of the tumor as possible. They believe they will be able to remove 90%+ of the tumor. After the surgery I will have 1-2 days in ICU and another 1-2 days in the neurology unit for observation and healing. After which is rehab if needed or I will be sent home to further recover. This is supposed to be scheduled within the next 3 weeks.

3. Chemo/radiation therapy.

4. Recovery. If all goes well and there are no complications or further advancement of the cancer, I should be able to recover within 3 months.

The following is the preparation for the surgery and chemo/radiation therapy:

1. Paleo diet to prepare my body for the best outcomes/recovery of surgery/chemo/radiation. Protein-rich foods, darky leafy vegetables, fruits high in antioxidants, protein shakes.

2. Probably the most important. Quit smoking.

On June 29th, 2017, I had a follow up visit with a seizure expert to check physical functionality and for a blood test to check the anti-seizure medication were at the appropriate levels in my system. This is the same day I began my Paleo diet (which is pretty expensive to keep up with). I am also still currently working on quitting smoking.

That pretty much brings everything up to speed. Waiting on the scheduling of the functional MRI so that it can be analyzed for the surgery. Then the surgery and then the long road of treatment/recovery. The biggest thing that has to happen during all of this: Stay positive.

“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.” - Old Irish Blessing

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" - Matthew 6:34

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Peter 5:6-7

“For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13