It all started December 2021. I had headaches, fatigue, slurred speech and couldn’t see out of my peripheral vision. The kicker was when I wrote something that was foreign to me, my handwriting was bad, even worse than it normally is. So I went to my primary care doctor just thinking it was a case of vertigo and I would get some drugs and that was it. Boy was I wrong! I went to the doctor, and then he recommended I go to the ER by him. The ER found a brain tumor in an MRI. They sent me to the ER in the main hospital in Cincinnati. Now I thought I would drive myself, I had Sandra with me as she took me to the doctor’s appointment and the nearby ER. NOOOO…. I got my first ride in an ambulance as a patient. They took me to the ER in the main hospital and Sandra had to go separately.

You would think that was it, but you would be wrong! The ambulance ride was uneventful, thank goodness. But it did take long. It was a Friday at rush hour in December after all. Funny story, my youngest daughter (she’s in her twenties, yes, I am old) was tracking my phone. She knew I had a doctor’s appointment and the route the ambulance took was near the brewery/bar district in out town. She was thinking I was going there for a celebratory drink…WRONG.

Back to the story, I had COVID in September so it was still in my blood. So when they looked at my blood and knew I had a brain tumor, I was immediately put in ICU. I told them I didn’t have COVID, and I felt fine but I was tired and hungry. That didn’t matter! I wasn’t supposed to have visitors either, but somehow Sandra and my sister made it in. It was Friday night now so not much was going to happen till I can convince someone I don’t have COVID. I just wanted to sleep at this point, but do you know what they do in ICU??? They wake you up every hour and ask you a bunch of questions to make sure you are ‘with it’. Well that was annoying. After midnight I got the day wrong thinking it was yesterday…oh, so sorry.

Saturday, I must have convinced them I don’t belong in ICU because I got a new room but I still had the COVID label. The food was better but it didn’t take much to beat the ICU! I could also sleep more than an hour at a time. They ran more tests, took more blood, and it was just part of the picture.

Sunday, they moved me to another room because I got rid of the COVID label. They ran more tests, took more blood, more MRI’s etc. They really didn’t know what to do with me, but knew I had a brain tumor but didn’t know why. I actually had multiple tumors in my brain, but the biggest one seemed to be attached to my cerebellum.

I must say, I have a great family! They made a Christmas tree out of surgical gloves to decorate my room! You can see the picture below.

Did I mention it was COVID time so hospitals limited the visitors and everyone was wearing masks. You know how hard it was to tell the nurses and doctors by their eyes only.