Grief Coaching and Spiritual Living

Part Five The Unintended Consequences of a Connected World

Dr. Donna

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Could your trusty cell phone be hiding a dark secret? Our guest, a heartbroken mother, shares her emotional journey through the challenging and deeply personal ordeal of her son's battle with a central neurocytoma—a once rare brain tumor now linked to cell phone use. She recounts how her son, a lively chatterbox, was constantly on his phone, dismissing her warnings. This poignant story reveals the unintended consequences of modern technology and how it turned her family's world upside down.

Through her narrative, you’ll experience the tension, hope, and helplessness of waiting rooms, the unwavering dedication of medical professionals, and the bittersweet relief after a successful surgery. As you listen, you’ll feel the raw emotions of joy and guilt intertwined, as one family’s miracle coincides with another’s heartbreak. This episode offers a powerful reflection on the resilience of the human spirit and the steadfast bonds of family during life’s most testing moments.

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Speaker 1:

Part 5. So the doctor told him okay, yes, this tumor has to come out, but I need to go over with my team. How, how do I even approach it? Because it's huge. It's, and you know it was huge and you know it was deep in the brain. It was called a central neural cytoma and this was once a rare brain tumor but it ended up becoming a more common brain tumor because of cell phone use. I don't want to get into the politics of that because you know, at the time people always had the cell phone up to there. Now we're in a better place, we're using Bluetooth, we're holding it with our hand.

Speaker 1:

But I have read, you know, some research articles on this brain tumor and they were saying that it increased in cell phone users and my son always had the cell phone to his head. My son was the biggest talker and gossiper he was and he knew all that was going on and he always had the cell phone to his ear and I would always tell him don't hold it to your ear. And he's like oh, you just worry, mom. Nah, nah, it's okay, because you know I was always the I would say, the woo-woo health nut believed in. You know you could tell me some odd things and I would believe it and it usually came out to be true. And I remember in hospital he said you told me not to hold the cell phone to my ear and I didn't listen and I wish I would have listened. And it just hurt because it's like, yeah, I wish you would have listened too so you wouldn't be in this situation.

Speaker 1:

So it took 12 days before. No, it took eight days and it was 12 days afterwards that he died from surgery. But it took eight days for him to have his surgery. And you know they felt like they had a good approach. Yeah, at the whole team. Right, you know he had the chief neurologist and you know top neurosurgeon there and you know the residents and you know he had a team and they were sincere through the whole time. I mean they would check in on him prior to surgery, they would talk to him and I know also they were looking to see what was going on neurologically with him. It was like examining him without examining him. But you know we were nervous.

Speaker 1:

By this time his father was there. His two step-s siblings were there. He has a step friend. Well, I say half brother, half sister. So his two siblings were there because they're they're his father's kids from another relationship and you know his girlfriend and then her family's there because they all knew him. And you know two of his best friends were there and you know we knew it's going to be an all-day surgery. So they told us to leave. So you know it was hard to leave but it's hard to just sit there and stay and wait right.

Speaker 1:

So you know we went to go do things, we went to go distract ourselves and then we came back and so we get, you know, the surgeon, who is a very I mean, excellent doctor but very humble man, comes out and he says we got all the tumor out.

Speaker 1:

He's showing he needs radiation after this and we were just in shock and you know, sadly you're there with other families. You know, sadly, a lot of people have brain tumors right, whether it's benign or not, and his tumor was considered benign. So it wasn't brain cancer but it was. The location was really bad because it was deep into the brain, attached to a blood vessel. And you know we looked over and we seen the family get some news. They started crying and we just all wanted to hug them. We felt guilty for feeling happy for my son having successful brain surgery. We were grateful but we felt guilty because this family over here is getting bad news that their family member didn't make it and it just was very hard. You know we had a lot of gratitude but it was very challenging.