I was diagnosed on July 17th, 2023 at 30 years old. I had a major seizure and upon imaging in the emergency department a mass was found in my right frontal lobe. We discovered that I had been having seizures over the year prior to this, the symptoms of which were mistaken as being related to severe anxiety and depression by various doctors at other hospitals and clinics. Upon biopsy and diagnosis of the tumor I was originally given a prognosis of six months and told that because of the size of the tumor surgery would not be an option. We then sent my medical history and documents to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona whose surgeons felt confident they could debulk a portion of the tumor. On October 4th, 2023 I had brain surgery which was successful in debulking a large portion of the tumor. I then went on to do over 20 rounds of radiation therapy and began chemotherapy following that. Unfortunately, in April of 2024, after only completing 3 of the 12 planned rounds of chemotherapy, I had another major seizure while in the shower which resulted in third degree burns to my right calf from the scalding water. I then had a skin graft surgery to repair the burned area. The skin graft was successful and after a long healing process of the donation site on my upper thigh, was given the “all clear” from the plastic surgery team in October 2024. I have not been given an updated prognosis but I am almost a year past the original prognosis of six months. At the end of September of 2024, my wife and I will be celebrating our second anniversary. We had only been married about nine months when I was diagnosed. We have two girls from her previous marriage that we are raising.
Clayton’s LifeList:
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Trip to Hawaii