My Story

Hi, my name is Joel.

The following is my story about my experience of having a brain tumor. Until about 6 months ago, I had really never done any research on what I had nor did I really care to know. Maybe not knowing its severity, rarity, and symptoms was the best thing for me.

It was December 1, 2001. I was watching a football game on TV and I went to the refrigerator to get something to eat. Then, just like that, I woke up riding in an ambulance. I quickly found out that I had a seizure. My mom, dad, and brother witnessed it and called 911.

I was kept in the hospital over night and the next day I had an MRI done. To my absolute surprise I was told I had a brain tumor which I later found out was a grapefruit-sized benign Meningioma brain tumor. Other than the seizure, I never had any warning signs like headaches or anything else that now, looking back, I would have expected to have had.

December 7th, 2001, five days later, I had a nine-hour surgery to remove it . I am blessed to have had a great surgeon. He has to be one of the best surgeons out there. For surgery I came in on a Friday, had surgery on Saturday, and was sent home Sunday night. For the next 10 days I took a steroid to reduce swelling. I only missed eight days of school because it happened near Christmas break.

Less than a month after surgery I was back in school. At the time I was 14 and in eighth grade. The school made posters and cards for me while I was gone and gave me a warm welcome back. I was also in basketball at the time and the whole team signed a basketball that they gave to me. I remember at the time not understanding why I wasn't allowed to play basketball during the week I was going to have surgery. That sounds pretty silly now.

For the nine months following surgery I took Dilantin. I never looked forward to a day more than the day I knew I would never have to take Dilantin again. When I was taking 4 or 5 of them a day I could hardly think and had to take many naps during the day. I remember simple math problems being difficult because I was so tired from taking Dilantin.

I am very fortunate that now I don't have to take any medication and haven't had any reoccurrences. Because at the time I was only 14 years old and still in eighth grade, I had no idea of the seriousness of what I had. I didn't think anything of it.

The craziest thing now looking back is that the day of the surgery, I never once worried about the surgery or coming out of it all right. All my friends, family, and teachers were worried, but I, the person who was going through it, really wasn't all that worried. I would get more nervous before taking a test than I did before having surgery. I now believe it was because I was so young and the fact that all these people prayed for me.

As silly as it sounds now the only thing that I cared about while going into surgery was being able to play tackle football my freshman year. The whole time in the hospital that was the only thing I was worried about and feared was the fact that I might not be able to play football. I was very good in middle school flag football.

In flag football, I had played quarterback for maybe four games and did my most/best work at playing wide receiver. In my 7th and 8th grade years I was always the punter. At times, I played on the defensive line and at middle line backer. Everything I did in my seventh and eighth grade years was geared towards being successful in football. Football was my life and now I had been forced to give it up. That was so hard to swallow.

Reluctantly, with the advice of my parents and my surgeon, I chose not to go out for football. As bad as I wanted to go out, I realized that because I owed so much of my life to my surgeon, I better listen to him. I ended up going out for cross-country and track instead. It worked out to be the best thing that ever happened to me as far as sports. I finished first team all conference in cross-country my senior year. I also ended up being part of a 4x400 relay team that went to state both my junior and senior years.

When I got to state my junior, which was about three and half years after my surgery I finally got over not playing football. We ended up missing the finals by three seconds and took home an 11th place finish. Until I got to state in track, I had been kind of bitter about not being able to play football. After getting to state my junior year I shifted all my focus into getting back to state and was finally over not getting to play football.

Then my senior year, I anchored this relay and we earned a spot on the podium and took home the final medal at state by finishing as the sixth best division three team in the state. The interesting part about getting back to state was I had to do it with an injury. Fittingly I developed a stress fracture in my left foot right before conference. At one point it got so bad that I could barely walk. Once I started going in for treatment it got better, but when I first discovered the injury it was so bad for two days that I was barely able to walk on it. I had to do all my training on a stationary bike and also iced my foot for an hour just about every night for three straight weeks.

Amazingly my first race with the injury, which was conference, I ran my fastest open 400 ever. Then that night I got to run the last leg of the 4x400 in which we set a conference record. Two eventful weeks later we made it back to state. Amazingly our last five races of the year we ran faster than the previous race in each of them. These were also our five fastest times of the year.

We ended the year by running our fastest time of the year, which was a 3:32 in the finals to get us a spot on the podium. I was very blessed to have such great teammates and a great coach. If it were not for my three team mates on the relay and my coach, I would have not been able to get to state.

The injury took me three months after the season to heal up from but it was definitely worth it. I also, in a vote by all the high school students, staff, and coaches, received the male senior athlete of the year award. This was special to me considering usually a football player receives it and the fact that so many people had that much respect towards me. Surprisingly my cross-country coach renamed the award to dedication after me. The award had long been named the Wiebel-Moore Award to Dedication. It was definitely an odd feeling having an award named after myself. I am honored by it but also think that I probably don't deserve to have an award named after me.

Currently I am 20 years old. I am not entirely sure what I want to be yet, but I do know I want to be able to help other people. I now get to go in for a check up every other year, and I have not had any reoccurrences in six years. Other than some short-term memory problems, I have had as normal of a life as I could have ever expected.


I definitely have a greater understanding towards any body that has any type of major health problem. This tumor probably kept me from getting into drinking and partying. I have a great appreciation for things that I wouldn't have otherwise had. I always went to church before having this tumor but didn't really believe in God to the extent that I do now. My advice to those trying to recover is be willing to accept other peoples' help instead of trying to take on more than you can handle-which is what I did. There is no reason to be ashamed of getting help because we're stronger when we work together as a team rather than trying to do everything all alone.


On November 4th, 2007, I ran in the New York City Marathon for the Tug McGraw Foundation. I received $5,800 in donations. In all, Team McGraw, which consisted of 36 runners, raised roughly $250,000 towards brain tumor research and support. As far as the race went, I finished in 4 hours and 31 minutes. The donations and the race went as well as I could have ever expected.


On October 12th, I will be running again for Team McGraw. This time in the Chicago Marathon. I really feel running for Team McGraw is a great opportunity for me to help raise more awareness to brain tumors. My goal is to put a face to brain tumors. I know what it is like to be told that you have a brain tumor and how important the help and support of others is. I was fortunate to come out of surgery as well as I did, but many others aren't as fortunate. I also get a lot of help and support from both my parents. I know because of how blessed I have been to come out of what I had so well that I must help others fighting the same battle. I find that the thought that I am helping represent all other brain tumor survivors is my motivation to run mile after mile.