Chris's Story

Shortly after returning from a wonderful beach vacation with my family I became very ill with a constant severe headache and nausea. Five days later, my headache was still so intense I was unable to leave my bed and my doctor directed me to go to the hospital for tests. The CT scan and MRI showed a mass, and I was diagnosed with a tumor on my brainstem. I knew that I wanted to be treated by Dr. John Tew at the UC Brain Tumor Center because of the successful work he had done for a friend of mine. Dr. Tew recommended that we watch the tumor to see if it was growing since the removal of a tumor on the brain stem was a challenging procedure. This surgery has risks for side effects like hearing loss, vision loss or loss of balance. Six months later an MRI indicated that the mass appeared to be growing, and Dr. Tew recommended surgery. I decided to get a second opinion from a large national research hospital and was told by one of their specialists that I should have the surgery. The doctor added that if he himself had a similar tumor, he would have Dr. Tew perform the surgery. Needless to say, I was impressed with the excellent national reputation of the UC Brain Tumor Center! Just before the surgery, my teenage daughter asked if Dr. Tew would be able to turn off the “geek switch” in her engineer father’s head during the surgery. Fortunately, Dr. Tew successfully removed a benign choroid plexus papilloma from my brain stem, leaving absolutely no side effects. Unfortunately for my daughter, there was no “geek switch” to silence … or at least that was what Dr. Tew said.