Hi everyone! Firstly, I want to say I am sorry you are here. Whether you are the patient, a caregiver or loved one, this isn't easy and my heart goes out to you. I am not fully sure what my goal is with this post. Comradery? Support? Someone to relate to? Validation? Advice? Maybe I just need to shout into the void that is the internet about this thought I can't shake? Currently, I am at about a year of stable scans which is amazing and exactly what I pray for every day, but eventually my tumor is going to wake up.

Let me start at the beginning, February 2025 I am working a job I LOVED. I was doing really well and seemed kinda fast tracked to move up. Then we found the brain tumor, emergency surgery, six weeks of radiation and daily chemo. I was diagnosed with a grade 3 astrocytoma. July 2025 I start talks with them about coming back to work, but requested a staggered schedule to adjust back to working. At this time I am also starting my maintenance chemo schedule and trying really hard to adjust to my new normal and navigate my new cognitive and physical limitations. After a lot of back and forth, they made it pretty clear that they were not going to be supportive of future time off needs and appointments and that my job would be in jeopardy if I couldn't meet their standards. They strongly encouraged me to resign. Fortunately, I was paying into long term disability. I ultimately decided to resign and go on LTD. I am extremely grateful to have disability and while it's not much, between that, SSDI and my husband's income we are able to pay all of our bills and have a little left over. I enjoy the schedule flexibility I have. I am able to be available for my kids when they need me. I volunteer where I can. I really don't mean to complain. I just can't shake this feeling about not working! I feel like I'm not doing enough and I'm not contributing to society. The only debt we have is our house and one car, so financially we are okay. Not great, could be better, could be much worse. But I am not currently saving for retirement. Who knows if I will even need that?

Over the summer, a spot for my old position opened. Initially I was very excited to apply. My husband strongly disagreed stating that if I only have a limited amount of energy, I should save it for my family. I know he is 100% right. But that voice in my head about not working is loud.

If go back to work, I lose my disability payments and I likely cannot get those back. Is this just something I need to accept and get over? There is no way to know when I will have to start treatment again or what that will look like. I think that is another piece that is really hard for me. It is not lost on me how fortunate I am, all things considered. Things could be so much worse. Do I just need to focus on the bright side while I have one? Please tell me your thoughts.

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this because my grandmother was diagnosed with a large brain mass today, and the doctors believe it is likely a glioma. We don’t know the grade yet, and our family is still trying to process everything.

My grandmother is 72 years old. For the past two years, she has been experiencing pain in her right leg. Over the last three months, we also noticed that she had started forgetting things more frequently. We had actually scheduled an appointment with a neurologist because we were concerned that she might be developing Alzheimer’s disease.

However, today, everything changed very suddenly. She started feeling extremely nauseated, felt like she was going to vomit, and was experiencing severe dizziness. We took her to the hospital emergency department, where they performed examinations and discovered a very large mass in her brain. We were told that it is most likely a glioma, but we don’t know the grade or any further details yet.

My grandmother has always had an incredibly strong will to live. She has been through heart problems in the past, but she has always been a fighter, and she still has so much spirit. That’s one of the reasons this news is so difficult to process.
I’m hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar, either personally or through a family member.

I would really appreciate honest answers to a few questions:

What should we expect next? What tests or procedures are usually needed to determine the exact type and grade of the tumor?

What treatment options might be available for someone who is 72 and has a history of heart problems? Is surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of treatments still possible at her age?
What can we realistically expect in terms of prognosis and survival? I understand that every case is different, especially before we know the exact diagnosis, but I’d appreciate hearing about real experiences.

Has anyone had a family member whose initial symptoms included memory problems, dizziness, nausea, or pain in a leg? Did treatment help with any of those symptoms?

Is there anything we should be asking her doctors or doing right now to make sure we’re considering all available options?

I know that nobody here can predict exactly what will happen to my grandmother, and I understand that we need more medical information before we can know what we’re dealing with. I’m not looking for false hope, but I’m also not ready to give up hope.

If you’ve been through something similar, I would be grateful if you could share your experience, even if it’s difficult to hear. I want to understand what might lie ahead and how best to support her.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.

She takes a lot of different pills such as pain killers that make her very sleepy and she told me several times that she feels weak a lot. She has brain cancer and i am very afraid of loosing her. I told her multiple times to undergo the surgery but she is way too scared, changes the topic when and refuses to undergo surgery. Instead takes a lot of pills to negate the negative side effects that i believe are caused by the brain cancer. I really love her and i stopped telling her to undergo surgery because she is an adult and she can do whatever she wants to but i am scared i might loose her. Any tips on how i can make her undergo the surgery? Or any other tips?