I am 24 years old and last year I started noticing that my cognitive skills were decreasing. I worked full time as a sales manager and found that I couldn’t type as well as I had before. I kept making mistakes and really struggled with basic things. My driving even started becoming an issue for me. Within a few months I began having headaches that turned into crippling migraines. By November of 2022, I was in extreme pain and at a loss as to what was wrong. I went to urgent care but they didn’t really help me. A few days later I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked my mom to take me to the emergency room. The doctor who saw me, listened to everything and ordered a CT scan. Based on those results she ordered an immediate MRI. Before I got back into the room my mom was told that we had a problem. My mom was told I had a 9cm tumor in the occipital lobe of my brain and it was possibly hemorrhaging.
On November 25, 2022 I went in for brain surgery to have the tumor removed. The tumor was sent off for analysis and I was eventually diagnosed with astrocytoma grade 4. My tumor is what they call a “well behaved tumor” which means they tell me I have about 5-6 years to live.
After surgery I began a round of radiation and chemotherapy to battle against the cancer cells. I am now having monthly rounds of chemotherapy for at least 6 additional months. In addition to all of the medicines, vitamins, supplements that I take I am also wearing a device called Optune. This device sticks to my head with 4 transducer arrays and puts out tumor treating fields to also try and prevent this cancer from growing. At this point we just deal with what is directly in front of us and try to focus on that. The plan is to do everything we can to fight this aggressive, terminal cancer and we are hoping that since I am young and strong and determined that I will outlive the doctor’s prognosis.
Kolton’s LifeList:
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A trip to Disneyland and California Adventure