Always Stick With You Gut Feeling

Hello my name is Steve Adams Jr. I am 33 years old and have Stage 4 Brain Cancer AKA GBM. I am a fighting and nothing will take me down.

The summer of 2015 is where it all started. On a Monday night I came home from work. I started to cook myself a quick dinner because my wife was working that night. I walked away real quick and with the walking I got really lightheaded. I thought at first it was because I was taking my new psoriasis medication so I pushed that aside at that current time. With that said I ate my quick dinner and walked up the stairs to go take a shower before I called it a night. As I stepped up the stairs all of a sudden came a weird smell and I got very lightheaded and that is when I started to concern myself. My mind was going nuts and started to get scared like I would pass out or die. I quickly call my doctors office and made an appointment.

When I go to my doctor’s office the next day, I felt lightheaded again as I was getting out of the car. As the doctor let me in the office I let him know how I was feeling. He asked me what happened and gave him detail after detail.

My doctor told me to go see another doctor because they thought I had diabetes. I new that was not what I had but they said that is what it sounded like. I met with the new doctor and she prescribed me with things to take my blood and so on. I took that for a while and those weird smells and dizziness kept happening.

Needless to say, I switched doctors. I explained my situation again and was told it is probably because I am a very anxious person and that is what happens when your an anxious person all the time. It started to get worse and worse and I ended up advocating for an MRI.

A week later, two minutes into my MRI, I got pulled out and the doctor said please go sit over on that chair because they had to make a phone call. Five minutes later a gentleman came to me because my doctor was out that day. They asked for my wife’s number and went into a different room to talk to her. They gave me the phone back and I said hello and she was balling her eyes out. I asked what was going on and she would not tell me – she just told me she would meet me where I was in Boston.

I was brought over in an ambulance bed and I was getting strapped in. Again, I had no clue what was going on. Lights were turned on and I was getting taken to the emergency room at TUFTS Hospital. I got to the hospital and everyone was shocked how good I looked and how they might have wrong person. With that said, they brought me to a room. My whole family was present and everyone was crying. I still had no clue what was going on.

A nurse came in and asked if I was Steven Adams. Finally with everyone in room I was told I need massive surgery as soon as possible. I was finally given the details. I was told I would be having a massive surgery. I was so scared I would not see my beautiful wife, kids or family and friends again. I grabbed my wife’s hand and would not let go.

I had a 14 hour surgery. I finally woke up and was still a little loopy. A couple hours went by and it all finally hit me. I was stunned that someone like me had this and also mad because doctors had no clue what those things happening to me was brain cancer.

I still have a partial brain tumor because the surgery could not get all of it. I followed up with radiation to try to make the tumor even smaller. With that said it got a little smaller but not much.

I am now a patient at Tufts Medical Center and they are great. Everyone I see is always shocked by how I always have a smile and never let any information take me down.

To end this story and who ever reads this and is going through what I am going through, here is one thing I want to say:

I am 33 years old and I am young. Look at yourself like I do and tell yourself nothing is going to take you down and nothing will stand in your way. Always keep your head up and keep positive like I do. My cancer team name is SexySteveStrong. I named my team name that because when I woke up from surgery the nurse asked me my name and I said Sexy Steve and I am Strong because of what I am going through now. My team colors are black and gold because I am the biggest bruins fan you will every meet. The whole team keeps me strong and motivated to win the big one and fight this terrible disease I have.

Hope you all stay strong AND always stay positive and keep a great smile on your face. #SexySteveStrong

---

Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.