A personal account of a Brain Cancer diagnosis - Josh Pearson

How cancer has effected my life.

Being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer was very scary.  Some of the initial questions that came to mind were: How much time do I have left?  What is going to happen to my wife and kids?  How are we going to pay our mortgage and bills?  How will this disease affect me?

I was told that there was no cure for this type of brain cancer, and that I would only have about a year or two to live.  I have a decided to try and make the best of my life with the time that I have left.  There are things I no longer can do, such as drive, due to seizure risk and because I have lost nearly all of my peripheral vision. I can no longer go bicycle riding due to balance issues. I also use a walking stick to get around because of the balance issues and the risk of falling. I am not able to use power tools anymore either because of my vision problems, as well as the shakiness that comes and goes. Also, the medication that I am on causes my blood to thin, and if I were to slip and cut myself it would be difficult to stop the bleeding.   When you are 37 and told you can no longer do most of the things that you do on a daily basis, it is devastating. I have always been very independent and the do it yourself type, so it has taken me a while to adjust to having to rely on others to get around.  All of the simple things that I am no longer able to do, that I always took for granted before a cancer diagnosis, have been taken away from me by this disease.

When you are told you have terminal cancer you either dwell on it or make the best of what time you have left.  I am going make every day count.  Since diagnoses I have landed 2 sturgeons over weighing in at over 600 pounds, 4 halibut over 60 pounds and my biggest salmon yet, that was 35 pounds.  I try to get to the gym 3 days a week to keep my strength up.  I am more active with my kids, I get up with them and see them off to school, I now do most of the cooking because my beautiful wife is a full-time student and taxi driver for the kids and myself.  I try each and every day to be a better father and husband.  Before diagnoses I traveled for work 260 days of the year, I missed out on so many things.  Now I get to enjoy their activities. Our 12 year-old Emma is very active with the Tri-City Channel Cats swim team, playing the flute, being on the Yearbook staff at Carmichael Middle School, and participating in Buddy Club for special needs students. Our son Joey is 9 and he is busy with Cub Scouts, playing guitar, playing for the Richland National Little League Dodgers, choir at Badger Mountain Elementary School, and he is now a Level 5 gymnast at Mid-Columbia Gymnastics Academy.  I missed out on so many of these things when I was still working, now I get to see my kids shine in all their activities.

Losing my job after my cancer diagnosis was devastating because not only did we lose our only income, we also lost all of our benefits. We have been paying out of pocket each month for COBRA insurance, because cancer is expensive and there is no way to pay for treatments without some type of insurance.

I promised my wife that I would see her finish her Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education, now all she has left is student teaching.  I am so proud of her; she will be graduating from WSU Tri-Cities in December with top honors.  As weird as it sounds, GBM4 has made me a better person. I volunteer at the Tri-Cities Cancer Center, and I try to help others with small projects around their house.  I know that I am blessed each and everyday that I have.  My days are numbered, because there is no cure for Glioblastoma. We must raise awareness and help find a cure. More awareness + More research = a cure!                 

- Josh Pearson