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Since my brain tumor diagnosis I've lived with a ticking time bomb in my head

Like most people in treatment for brain tumors in the United States, I’ve had to adapt to a mind that feels very different from the one I once knew.

To this day, odd spatial miscalculations mean I often knock over my coffee, bang the side of my face into walls and lose my balance. Clinicians can now apply for research funding to explore common symptoms afflicting brain cancer patients, including fatigue, seizures and poor sleep, as well as challenges with balance, coordination, word-finding and memory. This, together with my anti-seizure medications, has left me with near-crippling fatigue, but it’s far better than the toxic world of chemotherapy and radiation I may enter if my quarterly MRIs reveal a new tumor.

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