Help Donovan Malone Recover from Brain Surgery

Hello, my name is Donovan Malone. I'm 29 years old, and I'm from Port Huron, Michigan. I graduated from Port Huron High School in 2014 and attended Michigan State University. I graduated from Michigan State in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Economics. I currently reside in Phoenix, Arizona, where I live with my girlfriend and our 5 animals (it's a zoo, let me tell you).

In November of 2021, I started experiencing migraines. At first, I thought this was just a rite of passage as my mother and sister have dealt with them their whole lives. I started taking medicine, thinking that would make the problem go away. After a while, I started to become physically ill from the pain in my head, and I knew it was time to see a doctor. The doctor recommended I get an MRI to see what was going on. The MRI revealed a tumor in my right ventricle. Due to the symptoms I was having, doctors thought it was best I have emergency surgery to remove the tumor as they were not sure if it was cancerous or not.

This all happened on a Friday, and the surgery was performed that Monday. The doctors went through the top of my head, maneuvering through all 4 quadrants of my brain. The doctors were confident they removed the entirety of the tumor. They sent what they had off to be biopsied for cancer. We found out the next day that the tumor was noncancerous and was classified as a neurocytoma growing in the ventricles of my brain. They are not sure how these tumors grow or what causes them, so our only plan of attack was to monitor for any new growth.

The road to recovery was quite the process. I spent the first 5 days post-surgery in the hospital with a drain tube to make sure we could monitor and get rid of any extra cranial spinal fluid. During this time, I met with a physical therapist as well as a speech pathologist to help regain motor and speech functions as the surgery had to go through the quadrant that affects these areas of life. Once I was cleared to go home, I spent the next 3 months off of work relearning how to perform regular everyday duties and adjusting to what life was going to be like.

I'm very blessed to say by the grace of God I made a full recovery after the surgery and was able to go back to regular scheduled programming. Unfortunately, in August of this year, during my yearly MRI check-up, the doctors informed me that the tumor has returned in the same spot that it was in last time. They believe it grew back so quickly due to some of the tumor hiding in a blind spot that they could not see from the angle they went in at initially.

Thankfully we were able to get a surgery date quickly for January 15th. The doctors believe a new entry point will allow them to scrape all of the tumor out this time and hopefully delay any new growth for at least 10 years as this kind of tumor is impossible to fully get rid of.

The first surgery before insurance cost 400K and set me back 3 months as I was out of work while recovering. So, I'm asking for some help during this time to help cover medical expenses and everyday expenses as I will be out of work. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I want to say thank you in advance for your donation and Happy Holidays to you and yours!