So, as all stories have a beginning so does this one.

We will start the night before technically. I generally take a shower in the evening and washed my hair and head as normal, my fingers went through my whole head as normal and I didn't notice anything abnormal. The next day, which was Saturday, June 15th, 2019, I noticed that my son needed a haircut so we went to the Great Clips we always go to in our area. We both got hair cuts and all seemed normal. It wasn't though. A short bit later we were getting lunch/early diner and I noticed that my head was (what I thought was sweatier than normal) bleeding. Upon further inspection it was coming from some lesions that were not there the night before and further more I noticed nothing different during my hair cut and the lady cutting my hair mentioned nothing (I would like to note that it wasn't my regular stylist she was on vacation). At this point I decided to do my typical thing thinking that these were skin tags and let them stop bleeding and make a decision what comes next. As I travel for work Monday-Friday most weeks the following weeks were no different, and over the course of those weeks, two of the three lesions stopped bleeding completely, the third would not. It wasn't shooting blood or anything but, much like a cut when you pull the scab it would bleed until the clotting would start.

So I had a break in travel and decided to go to my PCP and see what could be done. At this time I would like to point out that I am exhibiting no signs of anything abnormal other than the lesions themselves. Back to the story, he told me that they were blood lesions, to me this made sense with the bleeding, and that I would have to get a general surgeon to remove them. I scheduled an office visit with the GS and at the end of the consultation I asked him what they really were. He told me that they looked like pilar cysts. So we scheduled a surgery day and that was July 29th, 2019. My surgery day came and went with no complications and I was back on the road for the next 3 weeks. During this time, I was in contact with my GS's office as to my schedule. I ended up getting my stitches removed by others than my GS. On my birthday August 22nd, 2019 my GS contacted me via cellphone and was upset that I had not come in the office or called them. I quickly explained that I had been in touch with his office and out of town. He explained to me the results of my pathology from the lesions. He said, "it's Angiosarcoma". Then he explained that the top two were negative at the margin, which I later learned meant that I was clean of cancer at the edge of the graph. The third tested positive at the margin, again which I later learned meant that there were signs of cancer at the edge of the graph. My GS had already consulted with a Surgical Oncologist and recommended that I schedule an appointment with him to see the next steps. So I did and this lead to an MRI and PET scans.

The PET scan came back clean so they felt confident that it had not spread. My surgical oncologist called me after the cancer comity had discussed my case and the best course of action given my age and general health. It was determined that the best course of action was Chemotherapy, which I then needed to set up an appointment with a medical oncologist. My medical oncologist is Dr. Ummed with Northside Hospital Atlanta. This is convenient as this is very close to where I live. I had my consult with Dr. Ummed on Sept 6th, 2019 and started my Chemo on Sept 9th, 2019.

Of all new cases of cancer per year Sarcomas as a group (of which there are 200 types) make up 1%, within the Sarcoma group AngioSarcomas make up also 1%, then my sub group (within the brain cavity) is 1% of that. If you have done the math with me that is 1 in a million. My first thought was why couldn't this be the lottery or something?

I went through 6 cycles of Chemotherapy, each cycle consisted in 1 week at the hospital followed by 2 weeks at home. My last week at the hospital was the week of December 23rd through December 27th 2019. Before I left, my surgery was already scheduled for January 13th, 2020 to remove what was left of the cancer. The surgery was going to take about 10 hours total, due to having to take fat and skin from other parts of my body to be able to close my head since they were going to take part of my skull and skin just to make sure I did not have any cancer left. And I was going to stay overnight at the hospital with the possibility of going home the next day.

Well, I went for my surgery on Monday, January 13th and did not wake up until Thursday, January 16th in ICU. What was supposed to be a 10-hour surgery ended up being a 17-hour surgery where they ended up taking muscle from my back, fat from my bottom and skin from my right thigh. They kept me heavily sedated for 3 days after the surgery so I would not move or turn my body and potentially hurt myself. I then found out that I had bedsores from laying on one side of my body for days, and I was expected to be able to get up and walk around the next day. All expected goals I exceeded them and I was supposed to leave the hospital a week after I woke up. That was until my neurosurgeon thought he saw cerebrospinal fluid dripping from my nose, which means that would be accumulating and possibly putting pressure in my head that would be bad. So, they decided to do a lumber puncture and take some cerebrospinal fluids out, and because the doctor wanted to make sure I didn't have too much pressure in my head, they decided to put a cerebrospinal fluid drain in my back for 5 days. While I had it in, I had horrible headaches that would not let me stand up, eat anything, sleep well, or even move without pain. Once they removed the drain, I waited for 2 days for a blood patch to block the hole the drain would leave in my back, which immediately stopped the headaches and the pain. This, however, brought on a new pain for lack of using my muscles and I had to relearn how to sit up, stand up and walk all over again.