Max: Health & Brain Surgery

I figured it is about time to tell the tale on this story. Who knows who this experience may help? So stand by, it’s a long one!

In 2020, I wasn’t very well for about a three month period. I am still not sure what exactly was going on, but I had hypoglycemia (I’m not diabetic) and some odd neurological symptoms such as pupils at different dilation and such. I’m not exactly sure what that was about or related to, but one morning in July I was sitting at the kitchen table and looking out at the chicken coop in the yard. Suddenly, I was unable to keep my eyes on the coop. My gaze kept darting to the right. Before I knew it, I was having a partial seizure where my head was twisted and jerking back to the upper right. I never lost consciousness, and was able to tell my wife to grab my head because I felt I was going to break my neck. My head was jerking back to the limits of my neck muscles. Suddenly, it passed. Then there was a moment of stupidity where I told my wife that I was fine now, and didn’t need to go the the hospital. Long story short, she packed me up and drove me to the ER at Fauquier Hospital.

At the ER, they gave me a CAT scan. This is what they found:

I had no idea about this tumor. No idea at all, I had no symptoms. Perhaps I had symptoms in the three months leading up to the partial seizure? It was a complete and total surprise to me. The ER put me in an ambulance, as a fall risk, and transferred me to Fairfax Hospital. There I met Dr. Watson, the neuro-surgeon. I think he may have been on call? I went for an MRI, and he told me that I was going in for brain surgery in the morning. It was COVID-crazy time and my wife was not allowed into the hospital. I had gone from 0 to100 normal to brain surgery in 12 hours, I was put in the neuro ward overnight, and I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it through surgery – it had been such a surprise and I had no knowledge about having a tumor cut out of my head.

I did go in for surgery in the morning, and was amazed when I woke up alive. My wife was allowed into the recovery room. This is what they pulled out of my head:

This is called an Oligodendroglioma. In fact, I was recently amazed when I read Jack Carr’s book Terminal List, to find out that the SEALs in his book have these same tumors. I was even more amazed that he even knew the terminology. In fact I was suspicious and wrote to him, but heard nothing back!

This was me at the surgeon check up several weeks after surgery:

I probably need to say that there were no ill-effects of this surgery. I know people can get nervous when they hear about brain surgery – one of the reasons I have deliberated about saying anything. In fact, various people said that I was a lot nicer after the surgery than before, probably due to the tumor pressing on my brain and causing issues. I do remember instances of rage, etc. So, the tumor removal has not impaired my mental competence and overall it has made me more chill, so don’t worry about attending training!

The big issue for me is that I never really grokked that I did in fact have ‘brain cancer’. I got with a neuro-oncologist at Johns Hopkins and I was supposed to go back for an MRI and appointment every three months. Initially I did this, but then quit. The big issue for me was that the MRI was done with a contrast agent, gadolinium, which is a heavy metal. Now, on the one hand I trust the technical skill of a surgeon, but I don’t trust the doctors from big pharma who are giving me these drugs, and will always deny any side effects. There are side effects from gadolinium. When I have an MRI, I usually go in afterwards for an IV chelation to try and get the metal out of me. In fact, after this surgery I was put on an anti-seizure medication (I don’t have seizures) which did cause an allergic reaction, so I quit. The purpose of an MRI with a contrast agent is to highlight areas around the tumor space where the tumor itself might be growing back, shown up by the contrast agent, in basic laymen’s terms.

What is interesting was that as far as the doctor’s were concerned, this tumor was ‘untreated’ despite having it surgically cut out, because I had not gone through radiation and chemotherapy. I did discuss this with the doctors and I did appreciate the candor where I was told that it wasn’t going to kill me immediately and I should watch and wait to see if I needed the radiation / chemo. Hence the three month MRI’s which I ended up quitting and didn’t go back for over a year. I have decided that I am not going to have radiation and chemo. Or, more accurately, I will do anything I can to avoid that outcome, but may well succumb in the end if it keeps me around for my family. More on that later, because I am doing all of the alternative treatments that really wind up the conventional doctors and they tell me to quit immediately if I even mention anything about it!

In the latter part of 2023, I did go back for an MRI, and sadly the tumor was back. It wasn’t huge like it had been before (almond size), but it was growing in the place where the previous tumor had been. I chose the option to go for further surgery, rather than going for radiation and chemo. As stated, I can trust the technical skill of a surgeon, but I’m wary of radiation and chemo. The idea was to have surgery on December 13th, so that I could be done with the years training and have some recovery time before I had to go down to the Texas class in mid-February.

I went back to Dr. Watson, he had already seen my brain and had done a good job before. Honestly, recovering from brain surgery is an easy ride, the main thing is waiting six weeks for the hole on your skull to heal up. This time around, there was more time to prep for surgery. As part of that I went in for a functional MRI, the purpose of which was to identify my speech center, which is close to the area of the tumor. That wasn’t what I expected. I thought I would actually speak while I was in the MRI, but in fact I had to respond to words on a screen placed over my eyes, and simply THINK. The blood flow shown by the MRI would identify the speech center.

I did go in for surgery on December 13th and this time I didn’t think I would die. I did think it was a possibility, and didn’t want to get too cocky about it, because that is when it will kick you in the ass! Surgery went well, the tumor itself was more floppy than before because it was growing in that space. Nobody took a photo of it! While I was in recovery, Dr. Watson spoke to my wife and explained that he (again) removed the tumor but that there was an artery that runs into my speech center where he believes the malignant cells are based. He obviously couldn’t cut that out, so they remain in the artery wall.

Since December I have been back for my regular three month contrast MRI’s. At the last one on July 3rd I had a good result with no growth of the tumor. In the three months prior that that I had done a couple of things: 1) I had been prescribed Tibsovo, a black-box warning daily big-pharma drug that is an IDH-inhibitor. The IDH mutation is the cancer mutation that is causing the tumor. The drug is designed to stop the tumor from growing. Shortly before I had the July MRI, I stopped on that drug because I felt possible side effects, but the neuropathy symptoms I felt turned out to be a trapped nerve – I haven’t started again yet, but do plan to at some point. 2) I had been doing alterative treatments, such as twice weekly high-dose Vitamin C IV infusions. The simplistic idea of the high dose vitamin C is that cancer loves sugar, but the C appears to be sugar to the tumor, which takes it into the cancer cell and destroys it. So partly, I’m not sure what was responsible for the good MRI in July, the Vitamin C (plus other alterative treatments) or the Tibsovo. By not taking the Tibsovo until my next MRI in October, I may have more of a clue what is working best.

The bottom line is that I have no faith whatsoever in radiation and chemo and believe it is terribly bad for you and will destroy your immune system. If the cancer doesn’t get you, chemotherapy will. I’m also not stoked about radiation directly to my brain! I believe that modern doctors are brainwashed and will not adequately consider other treatment types (let’s not consider the COVID debacle!) They will always deny the utility of alternative treatments and claim that ‘no studies have been done’ which is really them saying they have no idea. It’s big-pharma drugs or nothing. I have a job where I have to remain fit and active and the idea of being destroyed for however long it would be on the course of chemotherapy simply doesn’t fit that situation. Even after the chemo you are simply exhausted.

I am all about alterative treatments. I’ve been reading with great interest about the utility of frequencies for destroying tumors, and recently got a look at a Royal Rife machine. I read the book ‘world without cancer’ and was shocked to find out that B17 treatment is highly illegal in the US, but they do it in Germany and Mexico! What a bunch of crock! There are lot’s of thing you can do: recently I was trying viscum (mistletoe) sub-cutaneous injections. The theory is that its basically a poison that the body reacts against and strengthens the immune system. But you have to find a practice that offers this kind of eyes wide open alternative treatment. It never ceases to amaze me that B17 (laetrile / amygdalin) is still so illegal in the US that you cannot partake of it, unless you eat bitter raw apricot seeds (sourced legally from Richardson pharmacy in California). Ivermectin / fenbendazole anyone?

I’m in a space where I am assessing the benefits of various forms of treatment and making decisions on what may or may not work for me. I’m taking what seems useful from the conventional medical establishment, but also adding various alternative treatments to the mix, all in a desire to avoid radiation and chemo but also trying to avoid this tumor killing me!

I don’t want to give the wrong impression with this post, all this talk of brain cancer and tumors. Day to day, I’m not sick. I’m in great health. This isn’t the sort of cancer that makes you sick, and I am fortunate for that. I’m exercising, going to the gym, going on hikes with the family, all that. I’m running a full schedule of training classes. In fact, I’m not even sure what it would be about this cancer that would kill me, because so far it isn’t the type that is spreading to other areas. Perhaps its just ultimate pressure on the brain that does it? At the end of the day, I’m past 50, and it’s getting old that is messing me up! I’m in the gym working to maintain muscle mass and remain fit.

You may have guessed with all this talk of alterative treatments that I am a long way up the valley of conspiracy truths, such as our food is poison, assholes are trying to kill us, don’t wear synthetic underwear and all that. As time has passed we find out more and more and we have been making the changes to our families lifestyle in accordance with that.

I hope this post was useful to some of you?