Anthony’s Story

Anthony’s Story

Anthony

I was someone who never thought about brain tumors. I didn’t get my first headache until I was 37. I dismissed them for a long time, and chalked it up to being stressed. They would get bad, though. I would hear this sound in my head that I can’t even describe, and be in a trance-like state for about 30 seconds. A day before I was scheduled to be at the Daytona 500, I was bowling with my wife when a headache came on. Everyone insisted I go to the hospital. After spending six hours in the waiting room, I was ready to walk out when I was finally called back to see a doctor. They took a CT scan, and I was left waiting again. Just as I was packing up my stuff to leave, I heard someone running down the hall. The doctor came in and said he had called a neurosurgeon to come see me immediately. I knew something had to be wrong. When I met with the neurosurgeon, he told me it was a brain tumor and I had to be hospitalized. I decided against hospitalization at that time. I went home and did my research. Shortly thereafter I returned to a hospital with a recommended doctor and scheduled my surgery.

I had such an outpouring of support before surgery. Even though I was not able to go to the Daytona 500, I got well wishes from people there. Jay Leno called me from the pace car to wish me the best with surgery. I felt better heading into surgery than I had in a while because of all the support. My wife even tells me I was smiling as I was wheeled to the operating room.

After a nine-hour surgery, the doctors deemed it successful. As it turned out, there was a one-in-six million chance of developing the type of tumor I had. It took me about eight weeks to recover, but I came back 100%. After that, any little headache made me wonder if my tumor was coming back. It made me think differently.

Get Your Head In The Game® means everything to me. I want to educate the African American community about brain tumors. They don’t think about them, just like I never did, but brain tumors can happen to anyone. No one is immune to developing a brain tumor, and if you do, I want people to know that it is not the end of the world. There are some excellent neurosurgeons available, and technology is getting better every day.

I know now I waited too long before I got my headaches checked out. I want to bring awareness to this disease, not to scare people. I overcame my brain tumor, and I want people to know they can overcome it, too.

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