I’m Still Kickin

I’m Still Kickin

Steven

My story is one that caught everyone around me by surprise. For about a month I was starting to hear my pulse in my right ear and for a while I ignored it. But it got to the point where I was having trouble sleeping so I scheduled a doctors appointment April 10, 2013. When I got to the doctor he could tell that there was something there but he didn’t know what so he sent me for a CAT scan 4-12. Before I left the parking lot the people scanning me called me back and told me that I had a lesion on my brain and to get ahold of my doctor asap. It was already after closing time so I had to wain until Monday before I could contact him. When I contacted him he sent me for an MRI and an Xray of my head and to a Neurologist 4-16. When we met with the neurologist he got called into emergency surgery and his nurse told us we were not to leave he would be back asap.

He came in and told me I had a brain tumor and that he had send pictures of the tumor anonymously to University of Cincinnati Brain tumor conference and that they would be calling me to come down. We all went back home thinking UC would call in a couple days. They called at 2pm saying they wanted me down there ASAP there was a surgery spot open tomorrow. @ 4pm they called me saying I had a room ready when I got there. We arrived at the hospital about 8pm. By 10 pm we had already met with several DRs and they all said something along the lines of we could biopsy the tumor but there is a surgery slot open tomorrow at 1pm. Everyone was amazed that i had no side effects ( no loss of motion, sight, speech) just the hearing my pulse 4-17. On the 18th I was given another MRI with markers so that the surgeon could better tell where the tumor was. I was prepped for surgery and told that i would be semi conscious during surgery. All I remember from the surgery asking for more pain killers and squeezing the hand of a nurse very hard. The next day the surgeon came in and said that he took a tumor out that was about the size of my fist. 12 rounds of chemo, nausea & steroid pills and now all I have to do is see the Dr @ the Cleveland Clinic June 10th for a final check up.

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