May 6, 2018 2 min read

On Nov. 29, 2012, my life changed. I suffered a seizure, a big one. I did not know what hit me! Over the next couple weeks, I learned that I, unfortunately, had a brain tumor known as a low-grade glioma, more specifically, an oligodendroglioma. But, fortunately, the long-term outlook for me is fairly bright.

As a primary-care physician, I realized that I did not know lot about brain tumors. They are not particularly common, and of them, the really bad ones are the type that I occasionally saw. Since that day in 2012, I have learned quite a bit.

There are more than 120 types of brain tumors. Nearly 700,000 people in the United States are living with one. About 80,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, and this year, about 17,000 people will lose their battles against them. Though these entities are less common than other malignancies, there is a reasonable chance that you are, or have been, acquainted with someone who has been affected by this spectrum of diseases.

May is “Brain Tumor Awareness Month.” As a brain tumor survivor myself, I am hoping to motivate at least a few of you readers to learn more. Two national organizations are wonderful sources of information: the National Brain Tumor Society (braintumor.org) and the American Brain Tumor Association (abta.org). There is also an outstanding Canadian institution, the Canadian Brain Tumour Foundation (https://www.braintumour.ca/.).

Thank you all for your interest.

Douglas T. Corwin Jr., M.D.

East Washington