My Story

On Monday August 15th, I was rushed to the hospital at 3 AM due to seizures which I’ve never experienced before. My fiancé, Marcy, is not only credited with saving my life but staying by my side until I regained consciousness over 30 hours later.

By the time I woke up, 2 additional seizures had taken place and I had been moved to a second medical facility where both an MRI and a CT scan confirmed the presence of a brain tumor.

The areas circled in red below highlight the suspected tumor area also known as a glioma.

Now to put some of this in more perspective; at this time Marcy and I were just a little over a month away from our wedding date and still in full planning and organizing mode. We talked and decided that it would be prudent to go ahead and get married sooner so as to make medical questions decisions easier for both of us.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a huge thank you to Jody, Marcy’s sister, who recently got ordained and came to the hospital not only to officiate but help Marcy with anything she needed. Also huge thank you to my Grand Rapids-Mom Jann and Grand Rapids-Brother Jeremy for being our official witnesses, and checking in on us and bringing much needed laughter and joy to us.

After meeting with the neurosurgeons, we were informed that we’d be looking at surgery to remove the brain tumor to perform a craniotomy to establish access to not only the tumor for a biopsy and also a tumor removal. That is currently scheduled for August 29th at 7:30 AM.

We will post updates after the surgery on Monday either at the hospital or after I’m released which could be 1-3 days depending on how the surgery goes. Please keep my surgical team, Marcy and myself in your prayers for clarity, strength and an easy surgery.