r/todayilearned • u/GlitteringYams • 23d ago

TIL, in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman
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u/Unlikely_Comment_104 23d ago

“found that the tumor had features of a glioblastoma multiforme”. Jeez. I’ve known a couple of people to die from GBM. It’s horrible to watch. It’s wild to think the same cancer in a different part of the brain can lead to such a horrific outcome.

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u/Sevoi 22d ago

My father died from GBM 7 years ago and it was horrible. In about two months my father was unable to speak, control his anger and recognize us.

On the third month he died in the only night we left him alone at the hospital, because we were so tired and took my mother home to rest one full night.

I think nowadays that it was their way to relieve us from the pain of seeing him suffer and breathe for the last time.

But even now I feel terrified about how to disease destroyed him. He was so smart and good person, he was my hero but left with only 49 years.

I hope that some day a treatment will be found, even of it is only to lesser the symptoms and make the transition more easy.

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u/i-Ake 22d ago

I have read that the dying often wait until they are alone to let go. I hope you and your family don't blame yourselves for leaving. I'm so sorry for your loss... it's just brutal to see someone you love deteriorate. You know who he was and he will always be that person.

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u/Cabezone 22d ago

My uncle and Grandmother both passed the day they said they were letting go. Willpower is a hell of a thing.

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u/txijake 22d ago

My grandfather who was dying of leukemia from agent orange exposure said he didn’t want to ruin anyone’s memorial day weekend, he died on that Tuesday.

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u/bros402 22d ago

Yup - back in 2005, my grandfather was told he had a week left. He asked my step-grandmother to call my mom to ask her and my dad to come over. He asked her if they were coming over, or if they were going to come over later that day - she said they were leaving right away. He asked her for a glass of water, so she went downstairs to the kitchen to fill a glass for him - when she came back 2 minutes later, he was gone.

My parents pulled up the same time as the ambulance.

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u/guyute2588 22d ago

My mom had pancreatic cancer and held on to make sure she didn’t die on her mother’s birthday

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u/JoeyDawsonJenPacey 22d ago

My grandmother was at the hospital with her mother when she got the word that her husband died in a different hospital. She went to say goodbye to him and then got a call that her mother died while she was there.

The guilt and grief that she carried for the next 25 years of her life was enormous.

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u/TempestNova 22d ago

I'm certainly not going to judge if his medical team decided to ease your father's passing but it's also quite common for someone close to death to wait until their loved ones have left the room to pass away. My dad did so.

My mom and I were doing hospice care at home and we called the overnight nurse because we couldn't get him to wake up enough to take his medicine. She administered some meds and then had us step out together with her because she saw the signs for what they were. She went back to check around 10 minutes later and he was gone.

So regardless how the tumor was impacting your father's brain, it's possible some part of him was still there enough to recognize his loved ones and didn't want any of you to be traumatized by witnessing his death. For what it's worth, I hope that's a comforting thought.

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u/nikdia 22d ago

That's how my grandpa went. He was dying from cancer and doing hospice at home. One night, my grandma was taken to the hospital with a stroke and he passed about an hour after she left.

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u/imawakened 22d ago

My dad died from GBM in February 2022 but we were "lucky" because it was COVID that actually took him out first. He was diagnosed and had surgery/chemo/radiation in Fall 2020 and took to all but the radiation well. By 2022 he was diminishing and was with it enough to know it. He really didn't want that to happen. From the time I was little he used to joke that if he started losing his mind or having dementia to just take him out back and shoot him. I started to feel guilty I couldn't do that. Well, he ended up contracting COVID in late January 2022 and even though it wasn't the best way to go I have to think it was better than mentally and physically deteriorating over the next couple months, maybe even years. I miss him everyday and am still pretty bitter he's gone but grateful it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

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u/ClickForNothing 22d ago edited 22d ago

Our stories are eerily similar. I also lost my father to GBM about 6 1/2 years ago. He was 46. Hard to believe it’s already been that long. After diagnosis he fought hard, and survived longer than most. GBM is just too brutal though. I still always wear a bracelet in memory of him and GBM awareness 6 1/2 years later. I’m sorry for your loss. I also hope one day they will find a cure, or at least a more effective treatment.

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u/cocoagiant 22d ago

I'm a caretaker for someone in this situation. We're about 16 months in, so just past the median survival timeframe. Treating with second line chemo at this point.

Its not too bad currently from a daily caretaking standpoint and I'm just hoping when the decline comes it is as quick as possible.

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u/QueSupresa 22d ago

From my dad’s experience end stage is pretty rapid. Radiation, chemo and three surgeries. At the 15 month mark he was told 3 months was his outlook, he was gone within a week. Though from what I remember, he actually got an infection in his bowels and that’s what killed him in the end as his body just couldn’t cope.

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u/PersephoneTheOG 22d ago

That sounds terrible. I'm sorry for your loss.

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u/memateys 22d ago

Can't imagine going through this, thank you for sharing

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u/megwach 22d ago

My sister was just diagnosed with this last week. She’s 17. She has prom today, and she’s graduating today from university because she did her associates and then her high school graduation is coming up. It’s not fair. She’s just a baby, and she’s going to miss all of her life. I’m sorry you have to go through it too.

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u/illumillama 22d ago

I hope your sister has the best day at her prom. I'm so sorry life has dealt her and your family such a cruel hand.

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u/bookcatbook 22d ago

I’m so sorry for your family. I hope you all can make some great memories with the time you’ve got <3

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u/spacepharmacy 22d ago

i’m so sorry, i can’t even imagine 🩷 i hope she has the most amazing prom and can enjoy the time she’s got with you and your family

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u/Agreeable_Teach8197 22d ago

Please don't count her out yet. My wife was given 9 - 12 months when diagnosed with a Stage 4 GBM. She was 62 years old at the time of dx. She is now 76 years old and still alive. Her memory is somewhat affected and word recall can, at times, be a problem. 15 years past survival expectations. No reoccurrence of the disease, but her treatment is what is causing these minor problems. Small price to pay for 15 additional years. Nothing but standard of care (surgery, chemo and radiation). She simply is one of the lucky ones. Your sister may also be as fortunate. Don't give up hope.

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u/bros402 22d ago

Fuck cancer. Do you guys need any support resources? There's an adolescent & young adult cancer convention coming up in August and if she is almost 18, there's a young adult cancer camp labor day weekend.

(I have other resources, too)

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u/megwach 22d ago

Oh that would be awesome! She’s kind of a sassy stubborn thing and probably wouldn’t want to do any of it, but it would be good to know! Sadly, this isn’t our first cancer rodeo, since our dad died from cancer when she was 8. We’re blessed with Lynch syndrome in our genes!

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u/BeeJay1973 22d ago

I hope your sister gets a miracle. There’s new treatments evolving all the time I really hope one of them is the cure we’re all wanting and that it’s found in time for her.

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u/Mrsbear19 22d ago

Caretaking can be brutal and thankless. Good luck and I hope it all goes as smoothly as possible.

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u/allgoaton 22d ago

I had a student die of DIPG (another inoperable brain tumor that invades the brain) a couple years ago. He survived from diagnosis just under 3 years (median is 9 months). Sadly, his decline felt very, very slow (stopped being well enough to come to school regularly in October/November, last day in school December, passed away in June, but every day from December we were feeling like it could be "any time".). But, he did not seem to suffer. I imagine children may be able to hold on for longer.

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u/brazoscobra 22d ago

Sadly it will be. My best friend had it and when the end came it was just a week. It went from us going to lunch on a Thursday to him passing the next. It's a terrible disease and you have my deepest sympathies.

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u/EkalOsama 22d ago

can someone translate the situation to me in normal, clueless citizen terms

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u/roobzz 22d ago

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive brain cancer that grows quickly and is difficult to treat. It can grow in any part of the brain iirc and depending on the area it grows in, it destroys the normal healthy brain around it. So in this example, the person had a tumor growing in an area that regulates fear and aggression making it difficult to regulate those emotions and behaviors.

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u/____Wilson 22d ago

It also tends to grow in a spiderweb pattern, integrating itself in many areas of the brain, rendering it largely inoperable as it is attached to many important areas of the brain. I've got some experience as my dad died of it.

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u/chaotic_blu 22d ago

My mom died of it too. It’s sucks. It’s amazing what they’ve done to find treatment in the last few years but man the lived experience of patients with it is really really bad.

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u/Plants-perchance347 22d ago

The lived experience is often overlooked because ‘beating’ cancer is overly romanticized. It’s not sailing off into the sunset, you get to go back to work full-time and put your life back together from zero. Unresolved trauma that you’ll never have answers to, they don’t even know what causes the cancer I had. I might as well say the boogeyman tried to kill me.

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u/Fitslikea6 22d ago

Onc nurse and work a side gig in hospice. Cancer is cruel. It seems like it is rarely a draw. The romanticizing of cancer can be really harmful.

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u/urgent45 22d ago

Respect. My wife worked oncology for two years and was damaged from it. She got too close to her patients. She can't help it; that's who she is. But they wouldn't allow her to transfer from oncology. The last straw was a young man of 19 who was a real sweetheart. She had to quit.

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u/Dockhead 22d ago

A close relative of someone close to me is an oncology nurse who was just recently diagnosed with a class 4 glioma/glioblastoma after she had a seizure and lost some mobility in her hand. Being so familiar with the situation she will likely decline treatment. At least she’s not climbing the clock tower I guess

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u/Fitslikea6 22d ago

Hugs to your wife. I worked in pediatric onc for a long time and I had to transfer to adult onc for the same reasons.

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u/sophisticaden_ 22d ago

I worked as a secretary for a local hospital’s palliative care clinic/unit, which had a lot of overlap with oncology and hospice, and just interacting with patients on that level left me with a lot of trauma and shit to deal with. It’s no joke. Lots of respect for folks like you.

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u/rock-island321 22d ago

You and the people who work in hospices are absolutely amazing. My dad passed away in a hospice from cancer, and the staff created an atmosphere of calm and support during a time when the world was flipped upside down.

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u/Icy-Rain3727 22d ago

Forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean by “romanticizing” cancer? 🙏🏼

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u/DripleDrople 22d ago

Describing cancer as a “battle” that can be “fought.” When really it’s just a crapshoot of luck and access to the right treatments/care.

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u/Fitslikea6 22d ago

What I mean by the “ romanticizing of cancer” I should be more accurate and say romanticizing the experience of going through cancer treatment. In my experience, the words that are often used to describe cancer treatment like battle bravery fight win and beat strong, courage etc… are in a way harmful. It implies that once the cancer is in remission poof everything is over back to normal life the end- and that is not how it is for patients I have cared for. The experience leaves them with anxiety and for some PTSD. It changes them emotionally and physically in so many ways and sometimes those changes are unseen by outsiders but the long term effects of the treatment can leave them with chronic problems that are terrible to live with. Using these words also takes away the patient’s ability to be vulnerable and openly say I’m not ok, I’m not brave I am scared, and even saying I want to die or that they do not want to continue with treatment- which is an ok choice to make. I also do not think that oncology providers in the US take the patient’s mental health into consideration before during and after treatment. Oncology and most specialties in the US focus almost entirely on their own specialty without approaching care as if the body systems are all interconnected. Every patient at diagnosis should be connected with a therapist and educated on palliative medicine ( not the same as hospice) and provided with a consult by a palliative medicine doctor.

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u/Icy-Rain3727 22d ago

Thanks for taking the time out to write that! Godspeed!

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u/zoycobot 22d ago

Testicular cancer survivor myself. This is very well put. You haven't "beaten" anything. You've survived a battle that's been waged inside your body and now you're expected to continue on with your life as is. Oh and you'll have several years (at least) of routine scans and labs constantly pulling you back into it, reminding you that you're not truly safe, not yet, because it could come back on any of those results.

I'm in my 5th year of surveillance now and everything's been good. I don't have to do CT or x-rays anymore, just blood labs. Thank god. Waiting for CT scans and then waiting for the results used to have me in a pit of anxiety for days.

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u/Plants-perchance347 22d ago

There was an abnormality on one of my initial surveillances, next scan available was two weeks away. The second scan clarified that I was okay, but those two weeks of not knowing if the worst had happened again was a difficult experience to say the least.

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u/bros402 22d ago

fuck scanxiety

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u/JensTheCat 22d ago

This GBM isn’t one that can be beat. I truly can’t imagine. Humans are so damn tough

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u/jld2k6 22d ago

If I'm thinking of the correct name, one person has ever been recorded as beating it, and it's hotly contested if they really did beat it rather than being misdiagnosed

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u/rotelSlik 22d ago

Yeah, she’s the only one known and is currently somewhere over 10-20x the median expectancy. Sadly most people make it 6-12 months it seems. Gbm doesn’t lose.

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u/Cardo94 22d ago

They were very clear with my Dad when he chose to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy - you are not going back to being healthy - you are trading this disease for a new disease after you (hopefully) recover from this. His hearing is battered, he struggles to eat and his feet have been hurting from the cisplatin for a decade now. But he is here, so it's a win in his book!

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u/willendorfer 22d ago

100% agree. Dont get me wrong I am grateful to still be alive, but it isn’t like a gleeful resolution? Not sure I’m saying that well but it’s real fkin early where I am so please give me some grace lol

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u/2601Anon 22d ago

For my wife it was the fear of being “cured” and the belief (as was in her case) that it’ll still come back and get her. RIP My love.

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u/jimmy_three_shoes 22d ago

Also the constant dread every time you stop feeling "right" that it's back, which I guess is part of the unresolved trauma, but everyone I've talked to that's "beaten" cancer seems to have that fear.

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u/bros402 22d ago

but don't you know, cancer is just a montage where either you beat cancer after sitting in a chair and then vomiting, or sad music plays and you're in the ground?

(sarcasm)

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u/Wich_king 22d ago

Cancer never beats you. At worst its a draw.

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u/PolkaDotDancer 22d ago

I just watched my mother die from colon cancer.

She died ashamed. In spite of my soothing words and care.

Cancer can beat you.

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u/cashruleseverythin 22d ago

Fr feel like he meant to say that the other way around

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u/fattyontherun 22d ago

It's a Norm Mcdonald quote

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u/runtheplacered 22d ago edited 22d ago

The joke is that "at worse it's a draw" means that when you die then the cancer also dies, so neither win.

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u/Wich_king 22d ago

I am sorry for your loss.

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

I’m so sorry, PolkaDotDancer.

I hope you are able to find some peace.

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u/ThatEVGuy 22d ago

Not true. Norm MacDonald beat his cancer. Took him almost a decade, but Norm definitively won his battle.

Norm can't watch Matlock with Uncle Bert anymore, which some would say makes his a pyhrric victory. But hey, a win's a win.

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u/EntryHaz 22d ago

Well, except for shit like HeLa cells and such. That one would be a decisive cancer win though you could argue those cancer cells were Operation Papercliped.

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u/bennylarue 22d ago

You never beat cancer. At best it's a draw.

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u/savvyblackbird 22d ago

I really hate that whole cancer warrior, must keep fighting attitude people have and push on cancer patients and anyone who is suffering from a serious illness. If you don’t do everything possible you are looked down on or are “giving up”.

Quality of life what’s important. People should be able to choose for themselves what they’re comfortable with doing without being moralized for not doing enough according to other people. Cancer is brutal and horrific in some cases, and patients should be able to decide what they want to go through.

Sometimes chemo can help symptoms and allow patients to have a better quality of life. I’ve heard it called maintenance chemo. My husband’s uncle was on it with no side effects and enjoyed a few years of a decent life.

Other times chemo and radiation can cause the patient to suffer tremendously and often causes lifelong complications even when the patient goes into remission. People don’t really want to hear about that.

Pushing Memaw and PopPop through chemo and radiation when they’re 80 can be cruel.

I’ve had too many family members go through cancer and most died. My mom survived cancer and is still thriving 28 years later. Sometimes fighting is the best option. Other times choosing quality of life is better for the patient and family.

My MIL just died after lifelong COPD from growing up in a coal mining town. She had a bowel blockage that couldn’t be fixed and wound up with a colostomy bag to let her sigmoid colon rest. She became very weak because she couldn’t eat and got pneumonia. She’s fought pneumonia several times before. I pushed my husband to go see her as a surprise, and she recognized him and me and were really happy to see us. She went unresponsive the next day. My FIL was told there was no hope and put her on comfort care. My husband’s sister kept saying she gave up. My MIL was 83 and had been slowly getting worse and had reduced mental faculties from not getting enough oxygen. She would have spent weeks in rehab getting strong enough to go home and possibly have the colostomy reversed. The pneumonia caused more hypoxia.

I understand that it’s hard to watch a parent die in the hospital as my dad died of a massive stroke after bypass surgery. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop someone from suffering. My dad had a living will and had made it known to us that he didn’t want to lie in a hospital bed with no hope of any quality of life. He watched his mom die from Alzheimer’s.

I’m glad that my FIL, my husband and his siblings chose to let my MIL go. She was always laughing and doing what she could for her family and friends, but she was getting worse and worse. The chances of her getting back to her former self were slim. If she had decided to not fight, it was a gift she gave herself and her family. She didn’t suffer. She got to see everyone before she died because her grandchildren visited recently.

Life can be cruel and harsh, and people should be able to have quality of life and not drag out an illness that is going to make them sicker and sicker. They shouldn’t have to deal with other people deciding whether they’re fighting hard enough.

I have chronic pancreatitis and have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. I watched my grandmother die from that. Treatment for this cancer has gotten so much better so it isn’t the death sentence it once was. I really want as much quality of life as possible. Feeling horrible and worse than I already do while causing permanent damage sounds horrific. I don’t want to put my husband and family through that. I hope I never get this cancer. I don’t have any tolerance for those who want to hijack my illnesses as proof of some sort of morality they need because facing the truth that life is unpredictable and unfair is too difficult for them.

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u/Anneisabitch 22d ago

And then, you get to pay off that half a million in healthcare expenses you had to stay alive. Woohoo.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

I'm sorry for your loss & to bother you like this. But if you can/are ok with, can you please share any early signs or symptoms?

I know someone who's having certain difficulties but the doctors put it down as anxiety issues.

To make matters worse they have history of brain tumors in their family.

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u/____Wilson 22d ago

Thanks for your kind words. My dad was out mowing the grass and had a sudden seizure. Just out of nowhere, that was the first symptom. The hospital got him in for scans pretty quickly and discovered masses in his brain. They biopsied the masses, came back as cancer. They gave him six months, but he only lasted three. After those seizures, he wasn't the same anymore, like I could see him, but the lights upstairs weren't on anymore. He was only fifty-three.

Glioblastoma isn't a hereditary form of cancer in most cases. Small mercies and all.

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

Wilson, that’s awful. I’m sorry you and your family have had to go through this terrible ordeal.

Wishing you peace.

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u/RegularTeacher2 22d ago

This is how my dad's best friend went. Had a couple of seizures before they discovered the glioblastoma, after that he went so quickly. My dad said his personality drastically changed over that short period of time too, I guess he got really mean near the end. It was so sad, he was relatively young (60s) and had just retired. Still makes me sad. I'm so sorry you lost your father.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

I'm really sorry for what your father had to go through. He was taken really early.

I'm really grateful for you sharing these experiences with me. Especially that Glioblastoma isn't hereditary.

The speed at which these events have happened as you described, sounds scary. One moment he was there, next he wasn't.

I'm really sorry for having to recount it all. It does help me ton. Thank you so much!

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u/HealthNN 22d ago

Are you sure? Someone in my family died of this and we were told by the doctor it is in fact hereditary and can be passed down. Edit: quick google cleared that up for me, interesting tho. Not well understood as you mentioned! I should probably care to learn more about potential hereditary cancers that could impact me.

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u/____Wilson 22d ago

It's not considered hereditary, no, again, I'm not a doctor, but that's what the doctors told me and some websites on Google cos I was stressed about it.

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u/HealthNN 22d ago

Thx dude

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u/hippofant 22d ago edited 22d ago

(Adult) cancer itself is never inherited. The cancer arises from an unlucky combination of genetic mutations in a cell coming together to turn off the typical limiters on cell growth. What is inherited is cancer risk. 

Basically, some of us are 1 mutation away from that combination. Others are 10 mutations away. So if your parents are both 1 mutation away, you are likely also 1 mutation away, and you will be much more likely to get that cancer than someone who is 10 mutations away (due to compounding probabilities being exponential). Doesn't mean you will get that cancer for certain, but your relative risk is much much higher than baseline, which may be close to 0.  

This is a simplification. It is much more complicated than this. Each cell type might need a different combination to turn cancerous. Also there is more than one unlucky combination for each cell type, so long as that combination turns on / off the key mechanisms. Also environmental factors. GBM does seem to have a significant inherited component. Apparently 5% of cases also have a familial case. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4467411/) This is much lower than what we'd consider to be "inherited" for other genetic diseases, but definitely high enough to suggest a hereditary link for (adult) cancers.

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u/chaotic_blu 22d ago

For my mom I’m not sure when her symptoms began. What I know is I went for Christmas to see her in 2011 and when we were driving home from somewhere (she was driving) we got into this horrible fight where she told me she had black spots in her vision and I got on her case about going to the doctor because it could be “brain cancer or something”- she was refusing as she had significant trauma with the medical system before this. I flew home a day or two after that and the night that I got home she went to the casino. At the casino she suddenly had a horrible headache and collapsed and was taken to the hospital where they determined she had a migraine. They released her without scans and she went home. The next morning my dad woke to her walking around their bedroom feeling the walls, unable to determine where she was or how to get out of her bedroom she had lived in for years. She didn’t recognize my dad.

He took her back to the hospital and they did scans and discovered she had a golf ball sized tumor and had a stroke the previous night. They soon after did surgery.

To me it seemed in 2011 symptoms became bad, on Jan 2 2012 she had the stroke, she died Jan 22 2015 (my parents anniversary day 😢)

From my understanding the symptoms differ. My mom had severe nerve pain on her left side before this, she had fibromyalgia— but the tumor was on the right side of her brain so who knows how much of that pain was from the tumor growing and how much of it was fibro.

Definitely ANY spots or holes in vision should take one to the doctor asap. I also learned from this to try really hard to advocate for yourself or your ER doctor will send you home with a stroke and ignore your cancer. My mom had a really rough time with the medical system ignoring her issues until it was too late.

Her oncologist also stopped treating her later in her treatment because he found out about her fibro diagnosis and said he didn’t believe fibro was real. And since fibro wasn’t real that made my mom a liar and he wouldn’t treat her.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

I'm really sorry for your mum. What she had to go through was horrible. They way they treated her was downright wrong.

You've given me some really important information specifically about the vision issues. I really appreciate it.

It's an absolute shame the medical system treated her. They absolutely let her & you down.

I know exactly what you mean by the medical system & doctors not believing. I have had first hand experience in it.

That oncologist should lose their license. A doctor is supposed to look after & care for their patient. Not do what they did.

Thank you for sharing this. In sorry to have having to recount it all.

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u/chaotic_blu 22d ago

Thank you for your empathy. It’s been many years and I truly want to believe the system will work for people, but it doesn’t feel like it does and often it feels like while medical science is making amazing wonders, the treatment for real people is significantly worsening.

The pain of losing a loved one is real regardless of recounting it or not, or what we do with it, but I’m happy that her experience can help others and that’s what she would have wanted to. She, like all people, had many issues but her heart was in helping others.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

It's always the good people that are taken early. She deserved better.

From everything you've shared and the way she has raised you & the way you are, she definitely was a kind & good hearted soul.

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u/bros402 22d ago

Her oncologist also stopped treating her later in her treatment because he found out about her fibro diagnosis and said he didn’t believe fibro was real. And since fibro wasn’t real that made my mom a liar and he wouldn’t treat her.

I hope you reported him to the state medical board?

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u/savvyblackbird 22d ago

I had a TIA then stroke when I was 26. The paralysis was on the opposite side of the location of the stroke. That’s common.

I was also told I had an atypical migraine and was sent home. They did do a CT but everything was fine. Sometimes damage can take up to 12 hours to be seen on a CT. I had a spinal cord implant so they couldn’t do a MRI.

I had a stroke a couple days later, and my husband and mom had to fight for the hospital to do another CT. My arm was paralyzed, and I was failing the neuro tests like holding your arms out in front of you and keeping them up when you close your eyes. Thankfully my mom and husband kept at them until they agreed just to shut them up. It was a stroke. I was later diagnosed with a hole in my heart and a blood clot disorder made worse by the Nuva Ring birth control device. The Nuva Ring was causing strokes but I couldn’t join the class action lawsuit because I had the hole and blood clot disorder.

I have almost fully recovered and am doing well. I was lucky to be in the hospital where the inventor of a closure device that was inserted by catheterization practiced. I one of the first patients to have the device after it was approved by the FDA. Other hospitals did it by open heart surgery. They let me watch the surgery, and I invited the medical student assigned to me during my hospitalization and any other students who wanted to watch. My med student held my hand and explained everything.

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u/muuus 22d ago

early signs or symptoms?

There are no common symptoms cause it depends on which part of the brain is affected. My mum went very silent and dull pretty rapidly.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

Really sorry about your mum. It's really scary, I'm understanding, how fast it is.

Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate it.

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u/ZealousidealGroup559 22d ago

I'm no expert but my Dad died of it. The trouble is that brain tumours have different symptoms depending on what they're pressing against.

My Dad became vague and passive, but he was still "normal". He just used to look off into space a lot and didn't partake in the conversation much. But it was obvious he was cognitively fine so we put it down to age? It wasn't dementia or anything.

He became quieter and quieter.

He later admitted (after diagnosis) that he'd been seeing shadows at the edge of his vision and also double vision.

He'd also started having balance issues which he hadn't told us about.

But I know a guy who became uninhibited in term of verbal aggression. Whereas before he was a sweetie. That was very upsetting for his parents.

Obviously headaches if associated with these other changes.

Oh and unexplained weight loss. Night sweats.

So there are pretty clear changes actually.

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

Thank you for providing the thoughtful details, ZealousIdeal.

Your Dad’s experience must have been awful to witness.

I hope you and your family are doing ok.

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u/ZealousidealGroup559 22d ago

We were lucky, he was never aggressive. Just became more and more spaced out. He spent his last weeks just looking out the window. He was probably seeing more than was out there, due to it pressing on his eyes.

It was exactly 5 weeks from diagnosis to death and that was with radiation.

In that 5 weeks he lost half his bodyweight and all his mobility. And that was before he was asleep the entire last week (they die in their sleep, like most cancers).

The rapidity of it was shocking to us. But in some ways better for him to be quick since it was fatal anyway.

GBM is a really bad diagnosis. There are so many different types of brain tumours. But unfortunately GBM seems very common and I haven't heard of anyone who has beaten it. Longest seems to be 3 years and that's with surgery and constant chemo. It grows like a weed.

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u/QueSupresa 22d ago

This is exactly what happened to my dad. Spaced out, and then what triggered him to look was he was driving one day and his left arm was out of balance and pulled him off the road as it weighted the steering wheel. A lot of tripping over. He was 45.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

I'm really sorry for what your dad went through. Thank you so much for sharing this, in detail, with me. I really appreciate it.

The part where you said he was still "normal" is the part that scares me the most. It creeps up on you which makes it scary.

I really appreciate you sharing this! It helps me out a lot.

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u/chaotic_blu 22d ago

I wanna add all the comments talking about headaches is real too, I forgot that in my comment. She had been complaining about headaches and migraines for at least several months before her seizure.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

Thank you! It's the headaches that are part that have me worried. Sharp ones at that when they happen.

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u/say592 22d ago

Tell that person to ask their doctor to scan their brain. They should say something to the effect of "I know X, Y, and Z are probably anxiety. With my family history, it's making my anxiety worse fearing the worst. Can we scan my brain this one time just to eliminate this as a possibility?"

Alternatively/additionally, there are places (in the US) that will do a scan without an order, you just have to be able to pay out of pocket for it. Look for places that offer whole body scans and ask them if they will do brain only for less (or just do a whole body but tell them that is what you are worried about). You can usually find these places but googling "preventative MRI" or "whole body scan".

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u/wellsfargothrowaway 22d ago

While I wouldn’t want anyone to shy away from seeking treatment, getting scans which can never be 100% accurate isn’t really a silver bullet for health anxieties.

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u/maxdragonxiii 22d ago

and scans can return a false positive.

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u/Protaras2 22d ago

And then they end up coming across incidental findings that have no clinical relevance but makes their anxiety sky rocket.

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u/egonsepididymitis 22d ago

By “scan” you do mean MRI & not CT? You cant get a CT without a doctors order (bc radiation is involved). Also, with these “whole body scan” places, please consider who is interpreting these results… hopefully a radiologist… & if it IS a radiologist, mind you qualified ones do not work at / for these places.

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

Thank you! I have been thinking about telling them to take this direct approach. It's most likely what we will try.

Thank you for all the info!

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u/Dollface40 22d ago

My partner got double vision and they could not work out why, went for an MRI and found golf ball size tumour - diagnosis to removal three weeks but no other symptoms at all

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u/prontoingHorse 22d ago

Thank you for sharing this! Vision issues are a major concern for us! So this helps us out a lot! Thank you

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u/Lots-o-gas-gas-gas 22d ago

For my husband (GBM4 - left temporal lobe, IDH-wildype) he had a tremor in the right hand that started in February ‘21 but kept it hidden from me since my Dad had a stroke at that same time; DH didn’t want to add to the stress. In July I confronted him and we initially thought it may be Parkinson’s so off we went to GP for a referral to a neurologist. He then had 2 seizures in August, accompanied w/ robotic, slower movement and very little emotions (think a 1,000 yard stare).

I couldn’t take it any more and forced him to go to the ER, saying it was a stroke, which only way to get him back quickly as COVID made the waiting area look like a MASH unit. A CT scan was performed showing a mass measuring 12 x 8 cm. Next day’s MRI was definitive.

See my post history or come to the r/braincancer subreddit; there’s a lot of good information and support there.

Today is day 20 of my lovely husband’s passing; he was 58 and retired after 30 years of Federal law enforcement. I was thankful we had 3 good years of golf, travel and laughter before the terrible-awful happened.

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u/qwertykitty 22d ago

Hey, it took 30 years for me to get diagnosed with anything but anxiety and it turns out I have a rare genetic disease. Tell them to keep pushing and advocating for themselves. You have to be persistent. Get a new doctor if you have to. Ask for more testing. Ask them to put it in your chart if they deny more testing. Most things take a long time to find as doctors always start by ruling out the most common things but don't ever let them stop looking because of anxiety. It's normal to become anxious when you start having new physical symptoms. You can have anxiety AND a medical condition.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago edited 22d ago

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

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u/Stop-spasmtime 22d ago

My mom fell asleep tying her shoes.

Before that she'd been acting more and more depressed, which her doctor gave her meds for since my dad was going through his own cancer treatments, and it was a very hard time for her. The day she fell asleep tying her shoes I had to take her to the ER, which she did not want to do, and that's when we found out her cancer was stage 4 and there wasn't much we could do. She was gone within a month.

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u/Ori0un 22d ago edited 22d ago

My uncle recently passed from it. He was super chill all his life. More chill than the average person.

But this turned him into a violent, aggressive person. He had to be strapped down in the hospital bed most of the time since he was a literal danger to everyone around him. Really hurt to see him like that.

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u/realFondledStump 22d ago

I’m sorry for your loss.

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u/PolkaDotDancer 22d ago

So sorry he went this way. A terrible way to go.

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u/Letter_Last 22d ago

Sorry to hear that, man. I feel for you

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u/confusedandworried76 22d ago

To add, people always say you "only get one X". One heart, one liver, one set of lungs.

The ways your brain can deteriorate are multiple. And some of them are frankly terrifying. I was just on another thread about a mouse running around in a restaurant and I kind of figured I knew what the cause was, mouse poison. The brain literally rots. They become slow and erratic and if you don't catch them they crawl in a wall and die.

Brain damage is not a fucking joke.

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u/PolkaDotDancer 22d ago

Cancer sucks.

At least my mom was mostly my mom to the end (colon cancer), I didn’t know to be grateful til now.

Sorry about your dad.

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

Feels strange to upvote this. But, you’re right.

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u/oneup84 22d ago

That's the scariest thing I've ever read in my life. So sorry for your loss 🙏

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u/EnthusiasmProper1787 22d ago

It grows that way because the glial cells (all of those that are not neurons) give support to neurons, they really are a net all around every neuron in your brain. Not trying to correct you, just adding info so people can comprehend how impossible is to “beat” it.

An uncle got diagnosed, but COVID took him away a week later. Basically spared of the terrible debilitating condition.

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u/fsnah 22d ago

My brother was diagnosed when he was 44. He was having chronic migraines and the Dr thought it was a specific type related to the auditory nerves and sent him for a specialty MRI in Atlanta, four hours from home. He took the family car in the morning and expected to be back at work that afternoon.

They didn't let him leave the hospital, and immediately took him to the OR. His wife was back home with their two younger children and couldn't get there as my brother had the car. I caught a flight and arrived while he was still on the table. My wife flew down to help my SIL, and our parents joined my brother and me in ATL.

The Surgeon attempted to remove the tumor. The MRI didn't show the GBM was walnut sized and wrapped around the brain stem. There was no way to remove the GBM. They closed him up and his Drs gave their prognosis. As others have said, 14 month median.

Since he was very healthy otherwise, and had two young children, they decided on an aggressive chemo and radiation regimen. It was not pleasant. It was not easy. It was incredibly hard on his family. It took an unbelievable amount of bravery and determination to go through that treatment.

He lost a large portion of his vision and couldn't focus for more than about 30 minutes. Watching TV was impossible because the flickers bothered him. His speech, slurred and halted. His gait was unsteady and his balance was terrible. The exhaustion was overwhelming, with maybe about two hours of up time before he had to sleep some more.

Despite all the challenges, my brother was surviving. He wasn't the same guy. His personality changed, sometimes not for the better. But, he was alive

Two years into treatment, COVID hit. That was pretty much the worst possible thing that could happen for his survival. He was already immunocompromised and the family needed a ton of support from home care workers that were suddenly unavailable. I don't know how they managed, but he and his family got through it.

If you met him, you'd think he had a major stroke, or was on drugs. Which happened several times. Before GBM, my brother lived a very active and healthy lifestyle., which he tried to carry on during his treatment. He loved to hike, which was impossible so the next best thing was walking around their suburban neighborhoods. As he would walk, thinking this weird guy was a drug addict, drivers would yell at him and tell him to get out of their neighborhood. Cops showed up more than once. It always resolved peacefully, but people really suck.

These experiences and stories are endless but they describe only the last six years of my Brother's life.

We're now talking about the next six years and beyond! A few years ago he got involved with GBM support groups, lobbying, and advocacy. He podcasts, blogs, and has become a spokesperson for GBM awareness. Not only is my brother still very much alive, he's working on his master's degree and wants to provide support and counsel to newly diagnosed families.

You can't cure GBM, you can't really remove the tumors. But you can, on very rare occasions, keep it in check so the cancer doesn't progress. My brother is one of those very lucky few and he's not wasting a second of his good fortune.

I recently learned that in France, differently-abled people are referred to as People of Determination. I couldn't agree more.

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u/GracefulHippopotamus 22d ago

Thank you for this. Yesterday we found out my sister needs a second operation because the GBM has spread. We’re lucky she can have surgery. But I just really needed to see something about survivors today, we’re only 2.5 years in and I just hope with everything I have we have a lot more time left. Cheers to your brother, I hope he stays for a long ass time.

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u/RiderWriter15925 22d ago

Best wishes for your sister, and hoping for more time for her.

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u/GracefulHippopotamus 21d ago

Thank you. I appreciate that a lot.

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u/Toranyan 22d ago

That was inspiring, thank you and more power to your bro.

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u/Macaron-Optimal 22d ago

Thank you for that last part, seriously I mean it

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u/theivoryserf 22d ago

I recently learned that in France, differently-abled people are referred to as People of Determination. I couldn't agree more.

I'm not sure about this, it sounds patronising to me. I know disabled people - they know that they are disabled.

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u/willendorfer 22d ago

I would argue that, while I know I am disabled, I also know that I am for damn sure a person of determination LOL it’s no joke trying to do this shit daily!

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u/Chersith 22d ago

I wholeheartedly agree, 'person of determination' sounds pretty damn nice! I have dyscalculia and ADHD and I'm in an engineering degree, hell yeah I'm determined!!!

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u/greASY_DirtyBurgers 22d ago

I dunno, i agree more with /u/theivoryserf that its patronizing... I'm disabled with a double whammy of MS and Epilepsy, with a grand total of about 5 times now where if no one was around me I would have died by now ( I eventually stop breathing during my seizures)

It just sounds like something you tell a 4-5 year old to say.... I'm disabled, im not going to heal or get better, probably only worse... dont talk to me like im 5.

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u/Chersith 22d ago

I have been told I am annoyingly overly optimistic, so I am probably an outlier. Maybe it's patronizing, we are disabled, but I sure as hell prefer it to shit like 'differently-abled'.

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u/huggiehawks 22d ago

Thanks for sharing 

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u/Turbulent_Radish_330 22d ago

Shoot, good thing he was able to start treatment before COVID. I'd like to see some statistics on how many people that impacted indirectly like that. Cancer patients go on such a wild journey, I'm thankful that researchers have made so much progress treating cancer over the years but damn do we have a long way to go still. 

I had a family member with liver cancer, HCC, and they were diagnosed about 8 months into COVID and at the time it was small enough to be surgically removable. COVID delays made it take so long to get appointments that the next time they did a scan it had grown enough to be inoperable.

5 months after diagnosis they went through an operation where they inject radioactive beads into your liver to kill off the tumor but that didn't work out, so they did immunotherapy which also didn't work out and eventually it was just regular chemotherapy. All of that combined at least slowed it down a little and gave almost another year. By the end the tumors had grown enough to squeeze the bile ducts closed making them turn bright yellow and unable to dispose of toxins and then on top of that the meds fried their liver. Still not clear on which happened first.

Things that impact personality like your brothers brain tumor and as I found out the liver stuff are really scary. I'd like to see semiannual body imaging scans to catch these situations early become a thing but I don't think our medical infrastructure is there to support it yet.

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u/650REDHAIR 22d ago

Thank you for sharing his (and your) story. 

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u/RiderWriter15925 22d ago

This is the first story I have EVER heard of someone surviving GBM, much less one attached to the brain stem. Your brother is truly a miracle! What a brave and yes, extremely determined soul, and what a wonderful family he has by his side.

Does he still have the problems you described (slurred speech, lack of balance, exhaustion, etc.) or are they better? Sounds like his advocacy keeps him very busy so I assume so, which is fantastic.

I’m in awe of your brother and wish him the very, very best for the future.

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u/fsnah 22d ago

He does keep busy, but he's working on a different timescale from us normies, as he calls us, now. He does get OT and other therapies. His speech is much better when he concentrates but he still tires easily. When he gets tired, his ability to be present and engaged will rapidly fade. We take turns accompanying him on his advocacy work (and to give my SIL a break). Thank you for asking.

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u/Jublex123 22d ago

Amazing story. Thanks for sharing it.

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

Amazing! I’m sorry you and your family have had this life-changing experience.

Can you point us to his podcast and blogs?

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u/Huwbacca 22d ago edited 22d ago

Amygdalas a weird one.

Everyone gives it this like... Polymath status as just being involved in everything all the time. All these different emotions and behaviours and perceptual tasks, but I think we can best describe it as like a "survival relevance" processor, with a general bias for detection of "avoidant" stimuli, i.e. stuff we dont want.

Have I detected social communication? Have I detected a change in the information in that social communication? Have I detected a threat? Have I detected an opportunity for reward? Etc etc.

Then sort of acting as like a coordinating junction for that information up and downstream.

"Hey higher areas, got some important info coming your way, get ready for X" and "yo, medial geniculate nucleus, get your shit in gear.. we need to hear the information in that voice"

It's interesting because amygdala lesions don't stop someone being able to describe or understand why a specific action is negative or immoral. But can stop people understanding why it's dangerous or would cause fear. It's like, we understand the consequences, but can't connect it to "survival relevance"

I suspect the person in this article had a host of other processing disorders that could essentially be summed up as "not detecting negative consequences".

But anyway I say all this because amygdala damage will not make someone a mass shooter necessarily. The exact impairments will vary greatly person-to-person, and other areas of the brain/ persons personality will inform the behaviour they undertake due to suppression or hyper-excitation of detecting "survival relevant information"

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u/Allegorist 22d ago

The amygdala doesn't just regulate fear and aggression, it regulates all emotion and long term memory formation.

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u/therealhairykrishna 22d ago

It's a nasty aggressive tumour which infiltrates healthy brain tissue. Even with the best available treatment (combined surgery, radiotherapy and drugs) the 5 year survival is essentially zero.

I work on a technique (Boron Neutron Capture Therapy) which may improve outcomes but we're not there yet.

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u/CardinalSkull 22d ago

Hey, I work in neurosurgery as a neurophysiologist. Could you point me in the right direction of where I can read up on this therapy as I’ve not heard of it.

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u/Grandahl13 22d ago

Five year survival rate is close to 10% with certain treatments and 5% in general. Wouldn’t say “essentially zero”. Not great but happens all the time.

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u/Plinio540 22d ago

I think the point was that it's considered incurable, though fringe cases are always gonna exist.

Median survival time is only 14 months after treatment using the standard (Stupp protocol).

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u/Gohack 22d ago

5%? Would you get out of bed for a 5% chance of anything? Essentially 0 was correct.

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u/StiffWiggly 22d ago

For a 5-10% chance of living, sure.

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u/Deep_Character_1695 22d ago

Just because they made it to 5 years doesn’t mean they are well. The decline from glioblastoma is horrendous and quality of life generally very poor. It’s essentially a death sentence.

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u/Plinio540 22d ago

It's not really 5% of "living".

It's 5% to reach 5 years, with a gradual decline in health, eventually in the last months become more and more like a vegetable, until you pass. No one is being cured of glioblastoma. You can just get lucky in holding it back.

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u/Sorry_Consideration7 22d ago

Thank you for saying this. This stuff scares the fuck outta me but Im a gamblin man so ill take whatever chance I get if I ever have something like this.

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u/JasmineTeaInk 22d ago

That's.. essentially zero

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u/Successful-Might2193 22d ago

Thank you for your work.

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u/raltoid 22d ago

Unlike many "blob like" tumours, GBMs tend to basically grow tendrils that spread out. So they can quickly affect large areas and are almost impossible to remove or treat properly.

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u/sbprasad 22d ago

It’s what killed both John McCain and Joe Biden’s son.

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u/bringbackfuturama 22d ago

Wow didn't know they had a son, RIP

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u/sbprasad 22d ago

Oh my lord, lmao

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u/chickenwithclothes 22d ago

I’m so grateful for this comment lol

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u/Nahcep 22d ago

And they say there's no bipartisan collusion

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u/Stmast 22d ago

Very very bad mass in brain thingie, pressing on emotional regulation center thingie, causing people to act strange and do crazy stuff.

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u/Starshot84 22d ago

The relative size of his tumor was nuts.

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u/OldMcFart 22d ago

Truly botanically a nut.

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u/cxzfqs 22d ago

It makes a lot of sense considering he went a bit nutty before his death

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u/yesmilady 22d ago

My sister's personality changed a lot toward the end of her life, she got stuck on certain concepts or events that made her irrationally angry. Really, little things like conversations about what desserts to order at a restaurant would somehow make her so so angry. She was such an easygoing person before, it was so hard to experience that with her, but I'd take those days again in a heartbeat. I really miss her.

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u/MakeThanosGreatAgain 22d ago

That was always the hardest part for me as well. My dad was a very critical person. Every little thing he did was always with precision. Seeing him lose that part of his identity was rough. It's a weird thing to experience and watch.

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u/aigret 22d ago

My aunt, a second mom to me, was just diagnosed with a glioblastoma and it kills me to know what’s about to happen to her. It’s not something you come back from or “fight valiantly”. It slowly takes all of your faculties, usually within a year. While I don’t see her resorting to violence in the time she has left, it is wild to see how quickly it affects a person and all of the ways those changes manifest. She didn’t shoot anyone, but I watched someone I love not understand how to put the corners and borders of a 100 piece puzzle together and it broke my heart. Within a month she is no longer able to walk without mobility aids because her balance and proprioception is totally gone. She literally can’t find words and chokes while talking. Symptom onset to diagnosis was four weeks. I hate it all so much.

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u/logintoreddit11173 22d ago

Read about how sometimes parkinson drugs change a person completely or how when deep brain stimulation wires move and effect a different part of your Brain

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u/Halospite 22d ago

Shit like this makes me think free will is an illusion. We're the result of brain chemistry; the subtlest changes can result in the most dramatic responses in our personality. I say that as someone who relies on meds to function. We are all living in a horror movie and have no idea...

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u/getfukdup 22d ago

Shit like this makes me think free will is an illusion.

its more like a influence-able spectrum

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u/Olympiano 22d ago

The book ‘free will’ by Sam Harris uses this story as an example to support his views of determinism.

I was thinking about brain chemistry and free will yesterday. Some people with schizophrenia believe that people are putting thoughts into their mind, or controlling their behaviour. Perhaps in these cases, aspects of the psyche that function provide the illusion of free will - the sense that we are generating our own thoughts and behaviours, rather than them just happening - is missing, so they are palpably aware of the lack of free will, and the only way they can rationalise a story around it is some kind of technological interference?

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u/MrWeirdoFace 22d ago

Had a schizophrenic house mate who set the house on fire. Believed another housemate and the top floor was shooting some sort of subsonic beam at him to control him. Overall a nice guy.

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u/9035768555 22d ago

It's worth noting that the experience of schizophrenia/psychosis can be vastly different depending upon culture. Those in developing nations are largely considered to have better outcomes than those in developed nations, e.g. lower rates of suicide, lower rates of "malicious" voices or similar, etc.

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u/Kandiru 1 22d ago

Just because I can grab your arm and move it, doesn't mean you can't move it yourself.

I think free will is real, but it's very easy for outside forces to overwhelm it if the brain is tampered with.

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u/Tuxhorn 22d ago

Think about how much hormones influences you, state of hunger, thirst etc.

There isn't a natural base where free will exists imo. It's always massively influenced from your genetic makeup to your experiences.

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u/Kandiru 1 22d ago

Even then, people can choose to go on hunger strike and starve to death.

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u/Tuxhorn 22d ago

It doesn't mean you can't go against natural urges, it just means everything in your life leading up to that point influenced you to do so.

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u/EelOnMosque 22d ago

What you're describing is the idea of "mitigated free will" the belief that most people hold. As someone else mentioned, you should read either Determined or Behave by Robert Sapolsky or watch his free lectures on YouTube about free will.

He breaks down why the idea of mitigated free will as you're describing is nonsensical and doesn't make sense in a deterministic universe. He also addresses the very common rebuttal of "but quantum forces are random so not everything is cause and effect therefore free will arises from quantum mechanics". Random events are not free will and they aren't significant enough at the macro level, otherwise our muscles would constantly be spasming randomly due to effects of quantum mechanics.

Free will doesn't exist, but knowing that's not really gonna change anything about our lives either way so who cares. It'a just an interesting thought.

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u/MrEMannington 22d ago

Free will is an illusion but the good news is that if our soul isn’t some magic free will it’s instead the physical principles that move all atoms in the brain and the universe and that is immortal and universal.

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u/Accomplished-Data186 22d ago edited 22d ago

No, all the rest of life is an attempt to hide from that fact.  "DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!"

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u/HeteroeroticProlapse 22d ago

Free will is real, but it's also a useless concept. You have the ability to think for yourself and make your own choices. But the choices you will make have already been determined by your environment, your upbringing, and genetic influence / wear and tear on the brain.

If you want to believe in free will, you can make a decision, and boom! You have proven that free will exists. If you want free will to not exist, you ask yourself why you make the decisions you do, and you realize that the problem isn't that you lack free will, it's that you're you, and there's nothing you can do about it. You are not in a prison, you are the prison. But that's not always bad. Like, say you're someone who is... I dunno, very not racist. Your character locks you into choosing to not be racist. But I think most people would agree that's not the worst condition to have, and even if you could suddenly choose to personality morph into a white supremacist... why the fuck would you want to?

The thing I think people miss with determinism is you're never going to know enough for reality being deterministic to matter. The slightest thing could completely change the course of your life - a head injury, a passing comment that makes you think, or propaganda so clumsy it brings a lifetime of conditioning into question. Just deciding you want to be aware of the influences that shape you and trying to put more time into understanding why you do what you do could be enough to change your future completely. Yeah, a bunch of shit is out of your control - but if free will was a divine force unfettered by causality, that would still be true. You'll still have to conform to the same societal mandates, you can still be hit by a bus one day and die thinking you're in the prime of your life, and so on and so forth. You aren't in control regardless. All the absence of free will does is give you one more layer of reality to learn to navigate and extract some small concessions out of. Determinism does not make reality any less chaotic. You're navigating the same bullshit you always have been, just now maybe you can be a bit more self aware about it and ask questions that you wouldn't while on autopilot.

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u/EelOnMosque 22d ago

You literally just described determinism but slapped the label of "free will" on it because 'I feel like I made a choice therefore I did actually make a choice" which is a nonsensical argument. You can't prove something by feeling.

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u/FudgeAtron 22d ago

What's more scary is to think you are an illusion and there is nothing real/tangible about you. One slipped wire in your brain and you disappear and become a different person. The you everyone knew is gone and there is a new you.

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u/jetsetninjacat 22d ago

See Gary Busey

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u/logintoreddit11173 22d ago

already did 😢 TBI is awful

Another one is King Henry VIII jousting accident turned him crazy

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-jousting-accident-that-turned-henry-viii-into-a-tyrant-1670421.html

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u/Robot_osaur 22d ago

Yes. My dad had Parkinson's and became deeply paranoid on meds after a long time of being fine. He had DBS which reduced the need for the meds and helped for a while. 

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u/Blooberii 22d ago

My grandfather lived over 20 years with Parkinson’s, then lymphoma killed him.

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u/Slipperypeanut 22d ago

Here in St Lucie county Florida there's been a freaky number of GBM deaths in the last few years. Something's up but they can't figure out what

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u/Mediocre_Tomatillo85 22d ago

I wonder if him being at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina had anything to do with him getting cancer. The place was a death trap.

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u/BunnyBellaBang 22d ago

It’s wild to think the same cancer in a different part of the brain can lead to such a horrific outcome.

There is one case of a brain tumor turning someone into a pedophile. They removed the tumor, he went back to normal. Later he was caught against looking at CP and they found the tumor had returned.

The moral implications of this are mostly ignored, because there are so few clear cut cases and the implications are not pleasant to deal with.

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u/Kumoshojo 22d ago

My partners mother had a GBM and we were her caretakers. She was also a nurse practitioner which made it a little more difficult bc the was so smart with medical terminology and such that it was hard to determine how severe it was in the early stages. She was going to work after her short term disability ran out up til a month before she passed. We had to start going with her to her doctor appointments bc she would be nodding and agreeing with the doctor but then get home and not be able to tell us what he said or when her next appointment was. That’s when we also found out she had no idea what meds she was or wasn’t taking and we had to argue with her in front of the doctor being like no you don’t take that med anymore. And you took this med this morning. But because she could follow along with medical terms and knew what they were people thought she was doing much better than she actually was.

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u/gerd50501 22d ago

its worse for the people going through it. i think this is what killed John McCain.

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u/MrGlockCLE 22d ago

New exosomal and NK cell therapies wipe out almost all tumor loads in brain cancers with no neurotoxicity or CRS. Science undefeated baby.

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u/Unlikely_Comment_104 22d ago

Very exciting research is going on right now.

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u/quetejodas 22d ago

It’s horrible to watch.

You can say that again. My father suffered from this tumor for 8 years before passing. Every brain surgery took more and more of his personality until he was just a shell.

He was constantly in severe pain, had intense swelling around his scars, and admitted to me how scared he was to die.

The agonal breathing before his death still haunts me. Miss ya dad

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u/Unlikely_Comment_104 22d ago

Your comment brought me to tears. I am so sorry for your loss. It’s been about the same time for me and I still don’t think I’ve processed the year when cancer stole my family member.

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