Timing Is Everything?

Did you ever believe that a healthy looking 20 year old could have a tumor, the size of a tennis ball growing out of his brainstem and not even be aware of it? I wasn’t! But it’s possible! How do I know? It happened to me, about 14 year’s ago. That’s right 14 years!Being under the skull, it was being smooched and if finally got so big that it pushed on my optical nerve. I know, that we know have MRI Machines and that it would probably have been seen by that, but MRI machines are actually a recent invention.

Back in February of 2000, there was no such thing and that helped conceal my tumor. I was a junior in college , when they finally found it and I barely survived the initial set of surgeries (3 originally,) I had a grade 3 juvenile pilocytic astrosytoma. The surgery cost me my balance/ my depth perception and 38 points off my IQ. I was given roughly 6 months to live and then lost my ability to eat and talk. At that point, I started to bounce back. My neurosurgeon at Yale was dumb-founded, but I pulled out of it. He never expected me to go back to college, but I did and I graduated in 2005 with a BS in Engineering.

Today, I am 34. Still living with my parents (have applied to more jobs that I can count,) and am in great shape. I have 6 great nieces and nephews but no children of my own (won’t risk basing that gene down.) I would love to develop a handicapped operable car, but Government regulations are very restrictive, when it comes to SSDI. It must be because of my Scottish blood, but I am slowly moving forward.