(Published in print: Thursday, March 17, 2016)
Only a few weeks out from surgery to remove a tennis-ball sized tumor from his brain, things are already starting to return to normal for Adam Pillsbury.
His hair has started to grow back from where it was shaved from the surgery, though it’s still short enough to clearly view the large, question mark-shaped scar curling over his right ear. Despite a recommended multiple-week recovery time, he was feeling up to returning to his senior-year classes at Mascenic High School ahead of schedule. And for weeks now, he has lived without seizures.
Well, admits Adam, the lack of the seizures believed to be caused by the tumor pressing on his brain is not exactly normal. He has been experiencing petit mal seizures — sometimes called “absence seizures” — since he was in the eighth grade, as often as every other day. When a petit mal seizure occurs, a person appears to “blank out,” staring into space for a short time, sometimes only for a few seconds.
Adam said he’s been having what he termed his “episodes” for years, and it had been misdiagnosed as everything from a salt deficiency to stress to the tribulations of being a teenager. It wasn’t until recently, when he turned 18 and began to see a non-pediatric neurologist that he was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on anti-seizure medication. And during an MRI to determine possible causes of the seizures, that’s when Adam’s tumor was found.
“I didn’t want to believe it. How could it be?” said Adam’s mother, Christine Pillsbury, of her reaction to her son’s diagnosis. “He seemed so normal, just an average teenager. How could he have a tumor?”
“My heart just dropped,” agreed Pillsbury’s father, Waide Pillsbury. “It was pretty emotional there for awhile. We didn’t know if it was life-threatening or what it was. It was a pretty hectic week.”
But the family faced the situation with the same aplomb that Adam would carry through with him to the surgery’s end, said family friend Ronilee Small, who was staying with the family during the time Adam’s tumor was diagnosed. She traveled from her home in Virginia to assist the family while Adam’s seizure diagnosis had put the kibosh on driving.
“It was really inspiring to be around them at that time,” said Small. “I don’t know how I would react if someone told me someone in my family had a diagnosis like that, but I can tell you it wouldn’t be as well as that family handled it.” Small recalled that despite the frightening news, when they sat down for dinner that night, Adam’s mother continued a regular tradition of having everyone go around the table and recite something good that had happened to them that day.
“I don’t know that I would have been able to do that,” said Small. “I maybe would have needed a few days to rally. But you know, we all had great things we did that day that had nothing to do with the diagnosis.”
Adam was scheduled for a surgery to remove the tumor. And that upbeat attitude that Small noticed was something he carried through to the end, he said. The tumor is still being tested, but doctor’s do not believe it to be cancerous, said Adam, and he has every hope that its removal will be the end of his seizures and the end of a lot of worry for his family.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.