Page 7 - Healthbeat March 2016

Moore, 40, began to get sick. He experienced flu-like symp- toms and immediately got in bed, where he stayed for sever- al days. His mother, Mary Ann Moore, knew that something wasn’t right. While Thomas may have just thought it was a bug that was going around, the signs that something bad was wrong with Thomas had been building up for a while. Thom- as may not have noticed, but his friends and family had.
That’s when Mary Ann load- ed Thomas in the car, and the two headed to the emergency room at the John L. McClel- lan Memorial Veterans Hospi- tal in Little Rock. Once there, doctors did the usual — they checked his pulse, his breath- ing and his blood — but found no problems. They attributed his lethargy to a case of de- pression; however, Mary Ann continued to press the issue that something else was wrong.
An MRI scan showed a tumor on Thomas Moore’s left frontal lobe. The MRI image is reversed, so it appears in on the right side in this image.
An MRI was ordered, and that’s when doctors discovered the problem — Thom- as had a brain tumor in his left frontal lobe.
What doctors found was called ana- plastic ependymoma, a grade III cancer- ous brain tumor. Thomas was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 19, 2014, and had surgery to remove the tumor on Jan. 24. The effects of removing the tumor were immediate, Thomas said.
“When I woke up in post-surgery in the room, I remember feeling like a to- tally different person, like I was just born again,” he said. “It was an awakening.”
HIDDEN SYMPTOMS
Brain tumors are still mysterious to medical science, but over the decades, research has shed some light on the dis- ease. Dr. Erika Peterson, a neurosurgeon and an associate professor in the Univer- sity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ College of Medicine’s department of neu- rosurgery, said a brain tumor is a growth of abnormal cells within the brain and can be either cancerous or noncancerous.
While some brain tumors can show no symptoms, Peterson said, the first sign of concern is often seizures, worsening headaches, confusion or problems with balance or vision. Other symptoms may depend on the location of the tumor within the brain.
“Each part of the brain has certain
functions, and a tumor in one part of the brain will affect those functions managed by that area,” she said. “For example, a tumor in the motor cortex might cause weakness.”
The variation in symptoms — or lack of symptoms — is what makes diagnosing brain tumors difficult, Peterson said. The vagueness of the symptoms can cause the patient to not be aware that something is really wrong until it’s too late.
“Patients may not realize they should be concerned; therefore, they do not seek medical attention until symptoms — and the tumor — are more pronounced,” she said.
Brain surgery to remove a tumor can carry many risks, depending on the loca- tion of the tumor, Peterson said, includ- ing stroke, seizure and loss of neurologi- cal function. There is also a risk that the entire tumor won’t be removed, and more surgery will be needed. Tumors can also grow back and require further treatment. Risks depend on the tumor type and loca- tion in the brain, she said.
“In every patient’s case, I counsel my patient and their family about the specif- ics of their situation,” she said.
Despite the risks of brain surgery, much progress has been made in treat- ment over the past decade. Improved surgical techniques using minimally invasive or “keyhole” surgeries have decreased the damage to brain tissue surrounding the tumor, she said. New
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
After his brain surgery, Moore said he felt like he was back to his old self again.
technology, such as improved MRI im- aging and surgical tools, allows better planning and safer surgeries.
While treatment and outcomes for brain-tumor patients have improved, it’s still unclear what causes the disease. Pe- terson said there is some indication that genetics play a role. There are numer- ous factors at play that result in a tumor growing that are a combination of genet- ics, the environment and exposure.
IN THE CLEAR
After his surgery, Thomas said, he fi- nally felt like his old self again, and looking
back, he said the effects of the tumor were more severe than he had realized. While at the end, the tumor produced more obvious symptoms, he began to see the changes it had created in his person- ality in the months prior to his surgery.
In that time, Thomas’ behavior changed. The once happy-go-lucky guy started to alienate his friends. He lost his ambition and started to neglect respon- sibilities, such as paying bills. He said he stopped making payments on things,
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