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Focal seizures are not what you might typically imagine when you first hear the word “seizure.” They’re not the kind that makes you suddenly fall to the floor and start writhing around. These just make you space out for a few minutes, or maybe smell chocolate strongly for a second, or yawn 15 times in a row really quickly. 

I was having brain fog and at least a handful of those seizures every day by January 2024. I just didn’t understand why. I knew something was wrong. But I never imagined it was a brain tumor. And, I made every excuse in the book to try to explain it: getting overheated, eating something questionable, even drinking too much the night before at a whiskey tasting party. 

Finally, I couldn’t make any more excuses. The brain tumor symptoms weren’t going away. And, I wasn’t getting any better. I asked my wife to take me to the emergency room. 

My glioblastoma diagnosis

CT and MRI scans done at the ER revealed a mass about the size of a thumb in my brain. It was located deep inside the hippocampus, one of that organ’s innermost structures. The neurologist on duty said it was likely cancerous, and the tumor needed to come out ASAP.  

I believed him, but I also wanted a second opinion. I was only 57 at the time and otherwise perfectly healthy. It was pretty shocking to hear something was growing inside my head that needed to come out. 

My wife, Wendy, works as an administrator in Pediatrics at MD Anderson. So, I knew its reputation as the best place in the world for cancer treatment. I also knew that nothing was really new to its doctors, because they see things daily that other doctors see maybe once in a lifetime. Plus, we only live about 20 miles away from the Texas Medical Center Campus.  

My glioblastoma treatment

At MD Anderson, I met first with neurosurgeon Dr. Jeffrey Weinberg. After conducting his examination, Dr. Weinberg agreed that I needed brain surgery right away.  

We scheduled the 9-hour craniotomy for Feb. 19, 2024. Then, I had six weeks of chemoradiation under radiation oncologist Dr. Martin Tom, followed by six more months of standard chemotherapy under neuro-oncologist Dr. Shiao-Pei Weathers.  

I was hoping to try something new through AGILE, a clinical trial I joined at MD Anderson for glioblastoma patients. Sometimes you have to experiment a little to make things better. That’s why I volunteered right away to join a clinical trial.

But the standard of care for glioblastoma hasn’t really changed much over the past 20 or 30 years. So, I wasn’t terribly disappointed when I was randomly assigned to the control group. Whatever doctors were using back then was what they were still using now, so at least I’d be getting the most effective known treatment. 

My life today, after glioblastoma treatment

I finished my treatments at MD Anderson in November 2024. Unfortunately, glioblastoma is likely not finished with me.

The pathology report after surgery showed my tumor cells were rated Grade 4, which is the worst one possible. Statistically speaking, a glioblastoma recurrence is almost a certainty. You can never quite get rid of all of it, no matter how skilled your surgeons are or how much they cut out. Glioblastoma always leaves little particles of itself behind.

But Dr. Weinberg and his team got out as much as they could safely. And I trust both him and MD Anderson. The average lifespan after a glioblastoma diagnosis is only 18 months. I’m already at month 16, though, and my scans are still totally clear. So, I’m already a statistical outlier.

I’m not even taking any medications right now to treat cancer. I have hardly any cognitive deficits, either, which is pretty unusual after that complex of a brain surgery. Fatigue is really the only side effect I’m still dealing with.

Even so, I couldn’t keep doing what I’d been doing as a professional firefighter. I just didn’t have the stamina. So, I had to take early retirement in April. 

I wasn’t quite ready to make that transition. But it is what it is, so I tried to take it in stride. Now, I spend a lot of my time volunteering. I find a great deal of joy in that. It’s taught me that a cancer diagnosis is not necessarily the end of the line. You can live with cancer and still have a really good life.

Request an appointment at MD Anderson online or call 1-877-632-6789.