Man diagnosed with brain tumor after being told pain was from Zoom calls

A British man who was told his neck pain was the result of spending too much time on Zoom during the coronavirus lockdown has received the devastating diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor, according to a report.

Gary Nelson, 42, a Fitbit marketing manager from Chester, began experiencing pain in April, so he called his doctor, who told him the symptoms were likely related to his posture while huddled by the screen, South West News Service reported.

But when he began experiencing vision problems, he underwent an MRI scan that revealed an aggressive tumor on his brain stem, according to the outlet.

“Gary has suffered two brain tumors in the past but both were operable and he went on to recover well,” said his wife Amy, 40, a charity worker.

“Another brain tumor diagnosis was the last thing we were expecting, having been reassured that he had probably been having too much screen time on Zoom calls,” she said.

“Some rest did help to alleviate the aches and pains for a short time but a few weeks later, things got worse,” Amy continued. “Due to the coronavirus restrictions, he was on his own when he got the results. He was so brave.

I sat in the car park listening in over the phone when the doctor broke the news to us that they had found a ‘shadow’ in his brain stem,” she added.

“We later found out that the tumor is high grade. It was just devastating.”

Nelson was told his tumor was likely caused by radiotherapy treatment he received for a low-grade tumor as a child, according to SWNS.

He also was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012 after he began losing his sense of touch and struggled to complete basic tasks such as fastening his shoelaces or putting on his belt.

“Gary and I were living in the Middle East at the time, where Gary worked for Apple as a regional program manager,” his wife said.

“We’d been on holiday to Sardinia when his symptoms occurred so when we got home to Dubai, he made an appointment with the doctor and he was sent for an MRI scan,” she said.

“We were distraught to discover that he had a large meningioma tumor on a main ventricle in his brain. He was referred to the American Hospital and within days he was undergoing life-threatening surgery to remove the tumor.”

After moving to Chester five years ago, Gary and Amy traveled with their 2-year-old daughter, Olive.

“We went to New York, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Hong Kong, India and Thailand, to name just some of the places we visited,” she said.

“Gary has always traveled with work and he would fly me out to wherever he was, to make the most of the opportunity and to spend as much time together as possible.”

In August 2019, Nelson received radiotherapy after regular scans detected regrowth of the tumor — but it was the last time it could be offered to him because he had reached his lifetime limit of that kind of treatment.

It means treatment options for his brainstem glioma tumor are limited.

“An operation would render Gary paralyzed from the neck down. We already knew that re-radiation therapy wasn’t an option either, as it would cause brain necrosis,” his wife said.

“But our prayers were answered when we were given the option of chemotherapy,” Amy said.

“One thing I know for sure about Gary is that he is a fighter, the strongest and most determined of all. This is a fight we are taking on together,” she said. “We fight for our beautiful, clever, 6-year-old daughter Olive, who loves her daddy so very much.”

via: https://nypost.com/2020/10/21/man-with-brain-tumor-was-told-pain-came-from-zoom-calls/

Photo Credit: Brain Tumour Research / SWNS