“And then, one day, everything changed.”
KEVIN: I will start at the beginning. I had eaten a few hot dogs, then went to workout. I ended up throwing up. I thought nothing of it but, things got worse. Over the next few months, I started getting severe headaches, to the point that I would pass out and I was vomiting so often, I didn’t even have any stomach acid to get rid of.
I ended up going to the emergency room a few times, and they kept dismissing my issue as a stomach virus. After months of going back and forth and feeling awful, I decided to go out for my friend’s birthday. I was sick of feeling sick, so I got myself together for what I thought would be a good time.
After we ordered dinner, the waiter left and I went to the bathroom. Apparently, I was in there awhile, because my friend came to check on me and found me passed out on the bathroom floor.
My friends called 911.
I was brought by ambulance to a local hospital. I was totally fine one minute, and the next I was awful. The doctors initially thought I overdosed on drugs. When my mother arrived, she convinced them to do a brain scan. That’s when they found my brain tumor.
I really don’t remember if they told me or not. I just remember waking up in a different hospital with a drain in my skull. This was the first step of a two-step surgery. After a few days of draining fluid and reducing my brain swelling, I was ready for the big surgery. After this point, the next few weeks are lost to me. I couldn’t tell if things were happening or not. I only remember tiny bits and pieces.
And that’s when my life changed.
So, fast forward to the day before Thanksgiving. I was finally being moved to a rehabilitation place near Boston. I couldn’t walk and I could barely talk, but at least now I could kind of remember things. I was about to start a very intense rehab. Which, honestly at first, I was a little scared, because I got tired so fast. Sparing all the details, (there are A LOT) I had physical, occupational and speech therapies almost every day, along with proton therapy.
After a while, I was finally good enough to be moved to a less intensive medical rehab facility a few minutes away. It was really, nice. My room overlooked Boston harbor. Same set up there with therapy, except I didn’t have proton therapy. After a few more weeks there, I was ready to come home. I don’t remember exact dates, but I had been in Boston about two and a half months.
The day finally came to go home, and I was excited.
MOM: I was out at a movie theater when I got an urgent call from my daughter. She was yelling into the phone: “MOM! You must come to the hospital NOW! Kevin passed out at a restaurant; they think he had a stroke.”
Kevin had not been feeling well for months. To my knowledge, he had been to the emergency room several times and they could not pinpoint what was happening.
When I got that call from my daughter, I knew something was horribly wrong.
I got to the hospital and saw Kevin, he was talking and trying to reassure me everything was fine and the next minute he was talking crazy and he kept throwing up. The doctor’s initially thought he was having drug withdrawals. I demanded he get a CT Scan. The scan came back and the doctor said, “Mrs. O’Brien, I’m sorry to tell you that your son has a tumor in the middle of his brain. We need to transfer him to another hospital immediately.”
That is when our lives changed.
Kevin was transferred to an acute inpatient facility in Cambridge, MA the day before Thanksgiving. When he arrived, he couldn’t walk, talk, see very well, or swallow properly. He was 100% dependent on the hospital staff.
Kevin’s days were filled with intensive physical, occupational and speech therapies.
After 18 days, he started proton therapy and a round of Vincristine chemotherapy. He made the trip to Mass General Hospital Monday – Friday by ambulance for proton therapy and then back to Cambridge for three hours of therapy work.
After 67 days, he was transferred to another rehabilitation facility in Charlestown, MA. He spent 19 days there doing more intensive physical, occupational and speech therapies.
The day finally came to go home, and we were excited.