Fathers Day, 2009

On Fathers Day, June 21, 2009 at about 1:30 PM I was putting groceries away when I began experiencing what I call "an out of body" experience. It was like I was standing there watching myself put the groceries away. I know that I wasn't really speaking out loud (?) but in my mind I was actually carrying on a conversation with myself. This lasted about 2-3 minutes. I remember moving upstairs and going to the bathroom. The next thing I remember I was being questioned and prodded by a bunch of firemen. I was on my bedroom floor.

Evidentialy I had experienced a brain seizure. Within the hour I was at Burien Hospital surrounded by my children and family. Within 2 hours they had completed an MRI and identified a brain tumor on the right side just above my ear in the outer portion of the brain. By the next morning they had completed a CT-scan and discovered a growth (presumed to be cancer) on my left kidney. The initial fear was that I had Kidney cancer that had spread to the brain (not good).

Within two days I was discharged from Burien. I went to Virginia Mason which is where my doctors are. They scheduled a PET-Scan which told them that the two cancers were not related. By Friday, June 27 the decision was made to operate to remove the main tumor. I met with the surgeon who had performed surgery on my back a year ago and he agreed to do the brain surgery. We scheduled it for June 30th.

The surgery was successful and 3-days later I was home recovering. I was back at work two days later and feeling like I was going to be just fine.