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Getting through Brain Cancer with the Right People around You

David Reyes Sitting Together With His Family

David Reyes began noticing his motor skills declining when it became harder to write with his right hand. First thinking it was a nerve issue, he let time pass before going to the doctor. That鈥檚 when the headaches started.

"I took ibuprofen and Tylenol to bring the pain down, but it later stopped working. I started drinking Red Bull by the case," says David. "The only thing that would help at that point was caffeine."

On the day of David鈥檚 appointment with a specialist, he had already downed three cans of Red Bull by ten in the morning to help ease his headache. The pain was too intense, so instead, he went straight to the hospital.

"When I got to the emergency room, I was in so much pain that when the nurse asked me how bad it hurt from one to ten, I remember saying twenty," David says. "I couldn鈥檛 even open my eyes or walk."

After a CT scan and MRI, the doctors found a tumor the size of a lime pushing into David鈥檚 cerebellum, which is part of the brain that controls your balance and coordination. David underwent surgery, where doctors were able to take out about 35% of the tumor. A portion was sent to the lab for a biopsy.

"When the labs came back, I was told it was a type of brain cancer called a and it was stage IV," says David. "Medulloblastomas are more common in kids, so the doctors didn鈥檛 have a specific protocol they would normally follow for adults. They decided to start with heavy radiation doses and then do chemo."

David says that cancer is not just a sickness, "it鈥檚 something that affects you in the deepest way. I鈥檒l never be able to surf again, or do certain things, but I am alive. Your confidence gets shaken, but if you have the right people around you, you鈥檒l be fine. I have my faith, my beautiful, loving wife, my kids, my family, great friends, and my Qualtrics coworkers who are right behind me."

David remembers being sick through radiation, but in getting ready for chemotherapy, the MRI found no evidence of the tumor.

"The radiation eliminated everything and I didn鈥檛 have to do chemotherapy," says David. "I鈥檓 thankful for this miracle, but so are my family that I went to Huntsman Cancer Institute. They saved my life."

David鈥檚 cancer is now in remission, and he鈥檚 optimistic for the future.

"I wouldn鈥檛 say I鈥檓 back 100%, but I would say that I鈥檓 at 70% and I鈥檓 alive. I walk, I work, I take care of my family, and it鈥檚 great," he smiles.

Cancer touches all of us.