Surviving a Malignant Brain Tumor

By CHRISTIAN TRIANA

For Anthony Caldwell from Napier, New Zealand, battling a malignant brain tumor was the last thing he ever planned to do for most of 2016. However as these things go, misfortune struck him out of nowhere when he began to experience a series of severe symptoms that at first were assumed to be bad vision but was later found to be the signifiers of something much worse.

“I thought it was nothing. I had no idea I’d end up having to go through everything I went through.”

Before finding out he had fluid build up in his brain, and later discovering he had a tumor, Anthony’s life was simple. He worked at a demolition company in based in Hastings and enjoyed comics and movies in his spare time when he could.  A simple, normal life.

However one day, something was off. It started with headaches and migraines that just never seemed to go away, lasting for over half a year though at first doctors just gave him medication and assumed it was nothing important. Unfortunately, things would not be soo simple.

Anthony began to experience double vision, and needed to close one eye to focus on objects or text. Soon after he had trouble keeping his balance, and while walking around his house was manageable he would stumble in public causing him to worry people would think he was drunk or something to that effect.

Then came the hand tremors which evolved from mere annoyances to something that prevented him from holding cups, and finally the loss of feeling in his mouth. He knew he had to see a doctor now.

Anthony’s family was very scared by these symptoms, especially the shaking and loss of balance, and so he went to an eye specialist. Assuming it was still a problem based with his eyes, he was told that his right eye was responding slower than his left and had a MRI done on him.

The night of the MRI a brain surgeon from Wellington contacted Anthony to let him know there was a build up of fluid in his brain, which caused the symptoms he had been experiencing. Little did Anthony know, the doctor was keeping some important information from him: the presence of the tumor.

Anthony’s father picked him up and took him to his place, and asked Anthony to sit down. Anthony sensed his father was worried about something, but was not worried himself. “It’s fine, we’ll just get the fluid drained” thought Anthony. And then his father told him about the tumor.

 

His stepmother, Paula Cooper who works a as a chef in Napier, told him the brain surgeon wanted to tell him in person or for a family member to do it. Anthony broke down crying. It’s not news you want to hear at 20 years old, he emphasized while being interviewed. Anthony’s frustration isn’t unwarranted either, cancer between the ages of 15-19 is incredibly rare, accounting for less than 1% of all diagnoses, and he is only a year above that.

Unfortunately Anthony’s symptoms were not getting better over time. The headaches were still constant and only becoming more severe in nature. He would need to keep his head tilted at certain angles to avoid the pain, and laying down was out of the question as it made the pain unbearable.

Fortunately he was flown down in a plane to a hospital in Wellington, where if anything happened he could be taken care of right away. Six days later he was in for surgery, where doctors removed part of his tumor to analyze and made an exit in his skull for fluid to leave out of.

Five days, Anthony had to wait, laying in bed as the fluid was drained from him. Unable to feed himself or sit up at all for that matter. It was hell, and it would not get easier. Five days after the removal of the drain he was told the tumor was treatable. Good news for once!

Anthony was allowed to go home the next day, and would have to wait weeks to see the radiation oncologist about the details of his treatment plan. It was also here that they made

a mold of Anthony’s face for his radiation therapy.

 

Soon the radiation therapy began in Palmerston North Hospital. And for the first week, it was hell. Caldwell notes that during this time “If I wasn’t in treatment, I was in bed”, and that he completely lost his appetite due to just how sick it made him felt. He constantly felt like vomiting.

During this time Anthony was living at a group housing near the hospital. He remembers this as a positive experience, saying he met quiet a few people he ended up befriending, including an elderly couple he would regularly keep in contact with at the time.

Dosage for each patient is different, and Anthony would receive two with one on his head and spine respectively. The process required him to lay completely still for fourty minutes, but after he was allowed to go back to the assisted living home and do whatever he wanted with his day.

His hair began to fall out as expected, however it hit him particularly hard and Caldwell says it made him want to cry when he saw himself. While it started off as similar to when a cat is molting, it later fell out in complete patches and he decided to just shave it all off. His family notes he became more forgetful and tired as the process went on, as well as mentioning that he became noticeably more quiet than he normally was.

Fortunately it would soon be over, and his last treatment was on November 2nd. Two months later he received an image of his brain scans, showing the tumor appeared to be completely gone!

For Anthony this process was a revelatory one. It instilled in him the belief that anyone can get through anything if they believe in themselves, and have friends and family supporting them through it all. However it also made him rethink how close he was with some people.

The side effects of cancer are not only physical and mental, but social as well. Paula said that the hardest part of the process for her wasn’t just what Anthony was going through, but that none of his family from Wellington came to visit him in the hospital. It’s painful when people you thought you were close to don’t reach out, however this doesn’t necessarily mean that those who do reach out are helping either.
Anthony says around this time he was talking “At least 20-30 people…” but noted ” They showed they ‘cared’, but have we had a single conversation before or after? No. It just made me wonder who actually showed they cared about me because of the situation and made me wonder who actually meant it.”

Social media has worked wonders in connecting us to others, and Anthony even used this fact to spread his message as best he could. He even has a video up on youtube detailing the struggles he endured with cancer as they happened. Unfortunately as he saw with those friends who only messaged him during the fact, social media also draws out those who only act as if they care when something “important” happens.

However none of this has weighed down Caldwell, who now has a renewed vigor for life as a result of all of this. “I don’t let anything back. If I have thoughts or feelings about someone, I’ll let them know. If I

want to do something, I won’t stop myself. Reason why I want to travel the country later in the year. Life’s too short to let anything hold you back”