NOTE: This article was originally published on our Patreon page.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news: I have a brain tumor.
So, that’s pretty bad.
The good news?
I have the best kind of brain tumor. If you must have a brain tumor, this is the one to get. It’s benign (non-cancerous!!!), and resides on my pituitary gland.
Unfortunately it sits right beneath my optic nerve. If it grows too large, I could suffer permanent vision loss. It’s 8mm in size. It’s currently growing. If it reaches 10mm, I may require brain surgery to save my vision. The surgery is obviously invasive, and success is not guaranteed, so I hope we can avoid it.
Too much information? Well, maybe. I have debated whether to tell anyone about it. Unless it requires surgery, this is the kind of thing I might be able to keep quiet for a while.
On the other hand, it’s also the kind of thing that impacts one’s daily life, at least during this stage of the game. With our YouTube Channel, we are living in the public eye, to a degree. We’ve gotten some questions about what’s happening with us right now. I guess I’d rather be upfront than pretend that nothing’s wrong.
For the past several months, I’ve felt increased fatigue. There have been many times when I’ve said to Kristy, “I feel low energy today.” Sometimes I found myself taking long naps only a few hours after waking up in the morning! On other days, I found myself just feeling down. I’ve felt myself growing physically weaker. At times it required a lot of effort just to stand out of a chair. I wondered whether I was just getting old! Then there were the lingering dull headaches… Finally I decided to get a full medical checkup with all the necessary blood work. The blood tests raised some red flags, and further testing finally led to this diagnosis.
Some people have asked why we are not out exploring Nova Scotia or Montana this summer. Well, now you know. 😉 In between YouTube videos, I’ve been busy being poked, prodded, and slid into MRI machines.
Amazingly, this tumor will be initially treated through medicinal means. Last week I saw an endocrinologist and got my first dose of the magic medicine that will hopefully shrink this tumor. The prognosis is good – I think the success rate with medicine is around 80%. In the best case scenario, the tumor shrinks and eventually I can stop taking the medicine.
For the next 6 months, I’ll take the medicine and we’ll see what happens. That’s it. At this point there’s nothing anyone else can do. I don’t “need” anything, other than some positive energy, thoughts and prayers. I intend to keep on doing what I do without skipping many beats. Fear not, we’re not going to become the Brain Tumor Channel. 😉 In fact, we intend to do some Airstream travel soon!
REPEAT: ***I NEED NOTHING.*** I’M IN GOOD SPIRITS AND AM OPTIMISTIC EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE. There are many people dealing with much worse medical situations. This is mine, and I’m thankful it is not worse. This is not a condition that will “define” me. In the future we will resume our regularly scheduled programming. 🙂
Oh, and if you have been feeling strangely out of sorts lately, GET YOURSELF CHECKED OUT. It’s important to catch these things early. If I had waited a little longer, it might be too late to treat with medication. If my tumor was just a little bit larger, we’d be headed straight to surgery. If it was a lot larger, my vision might be permanently lost.
As always, thanks for being there for supporting Long Long Honeymoon. The best is yet to come!