All right well wishers, loved ones, friends, and dedicated or future fans. Everyone keeps asking me about my tumor and what happened to me and I have told the story almost 100 times. I have decided to write it out (as best I can recall) and put it out in a blog. So that way I can skip the story telling part and go straight to the criticism about my writing style. :p
The short version is I had a POS Care Provider who diagnosed everything as either Migraines or Allergies for the past 8 months. And no, I do not mean to downplay his training or concern, but For the past 3 months in particular, every time I or my family have been in to see him for ANYTHING it is always allergies and when I even mention trying something different He acts like we are trying to get him to dole out medications from his own personal stash or something. And I am not even talking about anything major, I never ask for quarters and even when offered I decline because I just have too much crap to do and often go into work extremely sick at the duress of my Commander and employees because I know the job needs to get done. And the meds I take for my Migraines are mild seizure meds or Vasodilators. And getting antibiotics for a sick toddler should not be such a freaking chore! Plus to get in for a BASIC appt requires almost an act of congress and takes nearly 2 weeks to be seen, but once I am in it's 3-5 minutes and I am on my way. The disappointing part is I had a lot of respect for my PCM when he first arrived, I had fallen and injured my right shoulder in July of last year trying to rescue Destiny from a skateboarding accident, and he had me in, full Rads shot and sent of to DGMC for analysis within a day, diagnosed me with a type 1 AC separation and issued meds enough to keep me comfortable without overdoing it, and got me into Physical Therapy to help me recover faster. By that November I was taking a PT test, not fully recovered, but functional. And he continued to show that care throughout my recover. But in February, his level of care seemed to diminish greatly. I know workload at the MTF is heavy and there are a lot of people who try to skate or get by on light duty, but you can't assume that everyone is trying to, and that's what it begin to feel like, got to the point I didn't even want to bother with medical at all unless I was dying, because it was useless.
But when I started to experience Headaches that were not the same as my usual Migraines about 3 months ago and they begin to occur almost daily, I knew something was wrong. I saw the PCM about it initially and he said it sounded like allergies. So chronic headaches with which bore no similarities to my traditional migraines and occurred on a near daily basis originating near my frontal lobe did not alarm him in the least. Nor did a 3 day Massive headache that required massive amounts of Butorphanol to keep me sedated enough to sleep it off about 2 months ago. But the clincher happened on 18 AUG, I was working and apparently had a mild seizure due to intracranial swelling, nothing grand mal but I was having trouble remembering passwords, how to operate computers, just major brainfarts that lasted almost half an hour and tinglining in my finger tips. My CPT was preparing to deploy and we were down 2 staffers so I was more concerned about getting work done and did not even think that there was anything seriously wrong. After it wore off I was fine and finished the day. Next day was no problem until the evening was filling out some counseling's before bed and had another episode, but no one was around so didn't realize it, lasted almost an hour. On Friday had Dr. Appt and was told allergies were bad this year and changed my allergy meds, told to give that a shot to see if would help with headaches. I told Dr. about CPT deploying and getting a new reservist while she was gone and not being able to afford having headaches and taking time off for sick call, and asked if he had a plan for alternate care or possibly a neurological consult and he said he feels the allergies will fix it but needs about 3-5 weeks before we see a change. So I said all right. A few hours later I had the brain fart again, only worse. Was filling out counseling's and just froze, spent 10 minutes flipping through applications trying to find one that looked familiar and nothing. So went to fridge to try and see if that would get the wheels turning, nothing, so I knew something was really wrong. I went into the hallway lookingg for help and was so out of it, just stared vacantly, looked right into the Surgery room and no one was there, then left into prep room and saw my NAF Veterinarian and receptionist talking and decided that was where I needed to go because there was people there. I just trudged in and said "I think there is something wrong with me, Something is just not right" and they asked what. I said I don't know, I can't remember things or how to do things, I just don't feel right" And they asked if I was having a stroke. "I don't think so, I can move and talk and I know what's going on right now, but I just can't remember things and am having trouble functioning" so they sat me down and called my wife. after a bit I got a little more coherent and started trying to work again, but was a little difficult still. I could not remember my wife's number so they had to look it up on the recall roster. I had to call the Appt line and try and get back in and they had nothing and were going to make me wait until Monday until I mentioned the tingling fingers and possible neurological signs, then they told me to go to ER, which is about 16 miles away from base. My wife got me and as we got off the freeway, my PCMs nurse called and asked what was going on, I told her what was happening and she tells me it doesn't sound like an emergency but that I was experiencing a type of migraine and I should come back to base to be seen or go to the off post clinic. I told her that I have had migraines since 2003 and nothing like this ever, so she put me on hold to talk to the Dr. 3 minutes later he gets on the phone (by now I am at the ER and in the parking lot waiting on the phone), and he tells me the same thing. By now I am so out of it and tired of phones and people I just want to go home and sleep, so my wife grabs the phone and ask "If we come back in there, what are you going to do for my husband, he's already told you what's wrong with him 3 times." and he said "well, we have pretty much done all that we can, but I just don't see what the ER is going to do that we haven't already done." and she said "we are already here and we have an authorization, can we be seen or not. " and he said "If you really feel its necessary I'll authorize it" and she said "Thank you" and hung up on him. So I was admitted and they pulled labs, everything normal, then a cat scan and they saw some artifacts, so wanted to do MRI just to be safe. Ran MRI with and without contrast and found a small mass with lots of swelling on my left parietal lobe. So I was admitted on the spot to Critical care, and started on Pred, Dex, and Insulin plus all sorts of nausea and pain meds. on Monday the 23 I underwent 3 hours of brain surgery to remove the mass, once it was out the Neurosurgeon immediately identified it as a class 4 glioblastoma, before it was sent out to the lab, but their results confirmed it. From what I have gathered they are the nastiest form of cancer you can get and those who have them usually experience a return with 3months to a year, which by then it is usually fatal.
That being said I am younger than the average patient diagnosed with this (usually people in their 60s) and in very good health. I have been recovering well from the surgery and am responding well to the treatment. I am currently undergoing Chemo therapy (Temadar) daily in conjunction with Radiation treatment Monday through Friday for 6 weeks (started last Friday, so almost 2 weeks down now and so far so good). And I am volunteered to participate in a clinical research for a drug called Avastin and I begin a week from Monday.
So much for the short version, huh? Sorry was so lengthy but had a lot to get out, plus I did suffer a little loss of my mental facilities after the surgery and am getting them back little by little each day, so I am enjoying the fact that I can still write. I begin occupational therapy on Tuesday and hopefully Will be writing much better and more coherently before long. Trust me, a couple weeks ago was all I could do to make a short entry on FB, now I can carry conversations and even text on my own. Yay me! Until next time, hasta la bye-bye.
