Beyond Belief How Living with a Brain Stem Tumor Brought Faith and Purpose to Li by Kyle Campbell

Author:Kyle Campbell
Format: epub

Many brain tumors are fast-growing. My slow-growing tumor has been considered benign (non-cancerous) due to the nature of its growth. However, it’s always been considered high-risk due to its fragile position (at the ponsal-medullary junction of the brain stem). My official diagnosis is a brain stem glioma, but I’ve also seen it labeled a “benign neoplasm” in my medical records. (Image to the left is a diagram of the human brain. The brain stem connects the brain to the spinal cord, which carries nerves throughout our body. My tumor is where the medulla meets the pons.)

I’ve never known if I should think of my tumor as “cancer” or not. Lots of things I read indicate that a benign slow-growing tumor is not cancer, and other things I read say that all brain stem gliomas are considered “cancer” because of the delicate location they’re in. Whenever the question “Are you a cancer survivor?” comes up, I never know what to say in response. I’ve experienced the neurological side effects, and have had radiation, but haven’t experienced chemotherapy or the exact same struggles as (what I think of when I think of) cancer. But, in the end, the label doesn’t really matter so much. What is in my head is what is in my head—no matter what it is. The focus hasn’t been so much, “What is it?” as much as, “What are we going to do about it?”

The neurosurgeon discussed radiation therapy as a potential treatment, but when used on a child’s brain stem, he explained, there is a significant risk of disturbing the natural distribution of hormones that glands (such as the pituitary gland) release into the body. We did not want to subject these glands to any radiation for fear of confusing my hormone distribution at so young an age. Any radioactive procedures would have to wait until after I had gone through puberty.

Some doctors told my parents my prognosis was poor. Their exact words to my mom were, “Mrs. Campbell, the prognosis for your son is not good.”

Another doctor, who would later become my primary pediatric neurosurgeon for the next 25 years, did not give my parents the statistics. Instead, he gave them HOPE by providing examples of his patients with tumors, like mine, who were going to college and getting married. My mom later told me that was all she needed to hear to cling onto hope for me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.