Bob Purk

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Hi I just want to start by telling you what has happened to me and my family over the past month. I was on my annual golf trip with the guys in Golf Shores Alabama. We were playing golf every day at least 18 holes and sometimes we would play a second round as a scramble. I consider myself to be in good physical condition. We arrived on Friday, 19 October. We had great weather while we were down there except on Thursday when it was raining. We went to a breakfast buffet and I was getting a plate of food and all of a sudden my right leg just buckled below my knee. I felt as though I was going to fall because I could not get my leg to do what I wanted to do, so a worker at the buffet pulled up a chair for me and my golf buddies were wondering what the hell I was doing. They thought I was playing a joke on them but they soon realized that something was wrong with my right leg. So we left the buffet and they took me to a doc in the box and the doctor examined me and could not find anything wrong that would cause my leg to just give away. She told me that as soon as I get back home to go get a CT scan. I told her that I was going to leave on Friday, 26 October and we would be home on that Friday night. I was in contact with Tracy and was telling her that I could feel my leg but it would not do why I wanted it to do. I could not curl my toes or push down like I was pushing on a gas pedal. I called her from Memphis and told her it was not getting any better she asked me if I was having any headaches, slurred speech, droopiness or any kind of pain. I told her that I felt great except for my leg. She told me too”Get my ass home” and we would go to the emergency room ASAP. I arrived about 8 o’clock at Mercy‘s emergency room and met Tracy there. I was treated they got my blood pressure pulse temperature and moved me to an exam room. They hooked me up to the heart monitors and soon a emergency room physician came in and examined me. He did all of the stroke things, thinking that I might’ve had a stroke. But I explained to him that I felt great had no headaches or anything. He sent us to get a CT scan of my head. We got back to the emergency room and he came in and told us that I had a tumor in my brain. Both of us were in shock. We were sent down to have an MRI of my brain immediately it was about 12:30 AM. They moved us up to a room where we were both exhausted and fell asleep for a little while. The next thing I know a neuro surgeon by the name of Dr Quinn came in first thing in the morning and told us that I had stage four Glioblastoma. Both of us were in total shock they were thinking about doing emergency surgery the next morning. We couldn’t do surgery because of the blood thinners that I was taking. To make a long story short I had to wait until November 1 so the Neuro surgeon could take out the cancerous tumor. My recovery has been going great. I have spent two weeks in rehab hospital where the therapist have gotten my leg so I can use a walker and I have a brace for my leg. In my recovery I have had absolutely no pain and no problems. Tracy and I have met with the hematology doctor and the radiation oncologist and my treatment for this brain tumor begins on November 26. I am going to have chemotherapy and radiation five days a week for six weeks.