1. The Start of the Journey.

It was May 7, 2024. Owen had experienced a moment where he would completely stop what he was doing… look off into space. He would be somewhere else for about two minutes. And then he’d come back with “that was so strange… I saw memories that don’t make sense.”

I didn’t quite know what to think of it. But I definitely wasn’t thinking we were about to start an uphill climb to save his life.

May 8, 2024. I was driving home from work. It’s usually an hour drive so I always call Owen to chat and make the drive a little bit bearable.

I was on the 1560, about to get into the turning lane to turn right onto Bandera when Owen started telling me that he had another episode while he was at Lowe’s that afternoon. And as he was describing what he felt, he suddenly started sounding out words, putting syllables that don’t go together together. He was trying desperately to relay something to me but the words were just sounds. It was about 1715. It was at that moment that I knew something was terribly wrong.

Owen didn’t want to go to the ER that night. He asked me, “what will they possibly do to help?”

And so I told him that I would schedule an appointment in the morning with our doctor.

At 0800, May 9th, I called the doctors office and they put Owen in for 1130. When we got there, the doctor told us she wanted an MRI stat, I guess that’s an urgent MRI. So within the hour, we were told to get to STRIC, an MRI imaging center in Stone Oak, for an appointment for 1330.

I remember we decided to run thru the Wendy’s drive thru to grab a quick bite and got checked in.

Owen had his MRI done but they didn’t let us leave until around 1600 with alarming instructions. The radiologist had called our doctor and the two of them decided that Owen needed to go to Methodist Stone Oak ER immediately. The radiologist wouldn’t say what they saw but said that a neurosurgeon would meet us there.

We got to the ER and Owen wasn’t just checked in, they admitted him into the hospital.

This was the longest night.

We did not have any information about what was going on until about 1900 when a doctor pulled us into a quiet room.

She said that the radiologist saw a tumor which looked to be a Glioblastoma (GBM). We learned at that moment that a GBM is the most aggressive brain cancer.

She said that Owen was going to be kept in the hospital because of the seizures. Apparently, those episodes were mild seizures. And that we would be meeting the neurosurgeon soon.

Owen’s room was in a surgical transition ward. It was tiny tiny. And so Owen told me to go home, pack him a bag, take care of the girls (our kitties), and return early in the morning. I did exactly that but I didn’t sleep.

In the morning, I hit the road early. But not early enough to meet Dr. Bogaev, Owen’s neurosurgeon, who stopped in to see Owen at 0600 before his rounds. Owen was excited about his talk with Dr. Bogaev but couldn’t remember details of their discussion. All he could tell me was that Dr. Bogaev was ready to take the entire tumor out the next morning, Friday, but that Owen asked to delay the surgery until Monday so that he could see his

parents who were flying in on Sunday. Dr. Bogaev agreed to that.

Friday night, Owen was moved to the main surgical ward. A much bigger room.

Dr. Bogaev came to see Owen everyday. He is a wonderful man. He brightens up the room when he enters. He had a quiet confidence and was optimistic that he’d get the whole tumor and that Owen would recover from the craniotomy with no problems.

The picture was taken on Friday. Impressive hospital food and Owen was going to eat well before surgery.