Personal Narrative: My Heroic Journey

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Pages: 5

My cancer journey started in February of 2005. My father had passed away in January and that was when I decided that I needed to make some changes in my life.

In February my plan was to get a check-up with my family doctor and then start the path to living healthy. I told the doctor my plan and stated that I wanted a heart scan, stress test and also wanted some allergy medicine since I felt that I had had allergies since moving to Elgin five years earlier. Just so you know, I am never sick and vary rarely saw the doctor so these were not normal requests for me. He told me that he would prefer me to have a CT scan before putting me on allergy medication. I had the CT scan on a Wednesday and on Friday I was sent for an MRI.

On Monday morning
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Sujit Prabhu. He agreed that surgery could wait, but that he would like to remove the tumor as soon as possible. In April, I had an awake craniotomy where a resection was performed that removed 33% of an astrocytoma brain tumor. I had my first seizure during surgery. I now take medication to control my seizures and have not had one in more than eight years.

After healing and taking a week-long cruise to Alaska, I started six weeks of radiation at MD Anderson through Dr. Sigmund Hsu. After the completion of radiation I had monthly scans. I was told at my doctor appointment after my scan that was done on October 31st that the cancer was back and that a biopsy needed to be done the next day. I insisted on being put totally out for this procedure. After the biopsy was done my parents were told that there was no cancer and that it appeared to be a cluster of dead cells that resulted from radiation.

After two years of follow up appointments at MD Anderson I was told that I could go to an oncologist in Austin for future appointments. In July of 2015, I was told by my doctor that she never wanted to see me again. After ten years, I can honestly say that it was the best break up