Tom Masterson Tom and Waynella

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On March 2, our life changed, and a new adventure embarked upon us. 

Previously, on New Year’s Eve day, Tom had injured his shoulder, in an unremarkable but physically punishing kayak rescue of tourists.   He experienced shoulder pain, and some lack of movement in his left arm.   Being a male (feminist remark!!), he thought it would get better if he just kept on doing what he was used to doing - paddling six man canoe and playing tennis.   It got worse; his PA, PT and another close friend, Dr. Dean Nelson, said he should look further.   

It was whirlwind - he saw the neurologist on Monday, MRI on Wednesday discovered the brain legions and the neurologist immediately admitted him to emergency for extensive follow up.  It was discovered that Tom had a tumor in his right lung that had spread through lymph nodes and metastasized into two large lesions in his brain (we always knew he had rocks in his head!). This was thought to be the contributing factor to the loss of function in the left arm.  The attending physician took immediate action, starting radiation treatment the next day to reduce the lesion swelling.  This was our 72 hour emergency, shared with immediate family.   The situation was very serious and very advanced.