I was the Vice President and GM for a small local and long distance company. My job was extremely demanding. Then one day I was holding a staff meeting and could not speak. I knew what I wanted to say but the only thing that came out was garbled. I asked my Office Manager to help me call my Doctor. When I got to the DR's they thought I had had a stroke. I was sent for an MRI. I knew it was bad when I received a call to come back and have one done with contrast.

Almost 1/3 of the Left brain was displaced by fluid. I had a 8mm ring enhanced lesion that appeared to be cancer. Because the mass was so close to the Occipital lobe, my DR needed a special piece of equipment to do the surgery. It is called the Stealth. My sister came out from CT to be with me and my family. She is a Histologist. Because she works with Pathology she immediately understood the outcome if it was cancer. I would have 3 months to live.

I put my house in order. This is hard because I have a 5 year old son and 2 other children and 2 granddaughters. I don't remember much about the last 12 days before surgery. I do know that I was dying. Funny how it felt all right to die. My sister caught on to my deterioration and called the DR. They immediately prescribed Decadron to reduce the swelling. I suppose it worked, but I don't remember.

I had a very distinct spiritual experience. I saw Jesus sitting with a group of adults and instantly understood how easy it is for him to love us.

It took Pathology 6 days to determine that I had Neurocysticercosis. It was a Pork Larva that had gotten into the brain. My body tried to kill it and when it did, I started to die. Anyone who wants to know about this disease can type the word on a search engine and find documents about it.

I have had my drivers license taken away due to blackouts I have. It is still undetermined if I am having seizures or if the sleep center of my brain is damaged. Therefor I am not being treated with any mdeication yet. I have trouble with my short term memory and fine motor skills. When I look at my fireplace, I call it a stove. It does not matter how many times I say I won't call it that. I have difficulty sorting stimuli. If there are a few people speaking I can't understand anyone. I cry easily.

The DR's in the USA have little knowledge of this disease. It is endemic to areas like Mexico, Ecuador and Africa. I have been told to live with it, I have sleep apnea, a mass the size mine was couldn't possibly cause damage etc.. My family DR thinks I will just be this way and have to learn how to deal with it. How does one deal with the loss of quality of life?

My hope is that anyone who has similar symptoms, especially unresolved migraines, insist that they have a MRI done. We are not supposed to have this disease in the US. If I contracted it living in Oregon, then anyone could.

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