The beginning of the journey

On July 1st when Ben and I were moving out of a house we had rented, Ben began to lose feeling in his right hand and mouth. He went to the doctor about a week later when the numbness continued. The doctor at that point did blood work (which came back normal) and some strength tests in the office. He told Ben that it could be anything from stress to MS and to keep monitoring it. The numbness continued but we began to see a pattern (mainly when he was at the computer, driving or just waking up in the morning).

At the beginning of August Ben noticed that his right hand was losing muscle tone and coordination. He had begun to drop things from time to time. We wanted to go back to the doctor but we were just about to leave to go to Indiana for a week so we figured we would just go when we got back. While we were back in Indiana we began to notice a lot more symptoms. One day in particular was pretty bad where Ben noticed not only his arm and hand going numb but also his leg and he experience some slurred speech. We immediately made a doctor's appointment for the next day in Indiana. The doctor there said that he definitely needed an MRI but that we could wait till we got home. He also said that it could be anything from stress to MS.

When we got home we scheduled an appointment for Ben on Tuesday, August 26th. Our family doctor who had originally seen Ben in July was shocked at how much things had changed. He had originally passed all of the strength tests and now didn't pass any of them. Also he measured many things and found that nothing was symetrical. He also observed that Ben had lost a lot of muscle tone in his right arm. He immediately ordered an MRI. He told us that he assumed it was a neurological problem and that it wasn't anything like a pinched nerve because it was affecting the upper and lower half of his body.

On Wednesday, August 27th Ben and I went to the hospital for his MRI. Around noon our doctor called and asked us to come in around 3:30pm for the results of the MRI. When we got there he showed us pictures of the MRI and told us that they had found a mass on the left side of his brain. At that point he had talked to five neurosurgeons all of which had differing opinions. All of them said it was inoperable though. We were told that our doctor would be setting us up with a neurologist and that Ben would probably have a biopsy and then start chemo and radiation everyday for 6 to 7 weeks. Our doctor told us how rare this was in someone our age and that he was completely shocked when he saw the MRI.