On November 15th, 2021, two days before my 27th birthday, I visited the eye doctor because I was having issues with my vision. Everything seemed really bright and I was noticing blind spots when I played summer softball. During the exam, the eye doctor ended the appointment to send me to the ER. His exam uncovered the symptoms of a brain tumor. That same night, a CT scan and MRI showed a 7 cm tumor on my occipital lobe.
On November 18th, my wife rushed me to the hospital as I quickly declined. I was admitted to the neuro-ward and by November 20th, my neurosurgeon rushed me to surgery as I had lost responsiveness. He performed a total resection and I was in the ICU and rehab for the following weeks. Pathology came back two weeks before Christmas – it was a tumor that was formerly defined as glioblastoma. Now called diffuse hemispheric glioma.
In early 2022, I started 6 weeks of radiation with chemo. Currently the remnants of the tumor still exist on the fringes of the previous resection cavity but the treatment appears to be holding off their growth. We will continue to do this until we reach the end of the 12 months or recurrence.
Austin’s LifeList:
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Trip to Boston
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Tickets to a Red Sox game