A Brain Tumor Stopped This Guy From Doing an 8,800-Foot Mountain Climb. A Year Later, He Made It to the Top.

Matthew Stewart started an adventure ice climbing Half of Dome in Yosemite in 2023 good esteem many match 28-year-olds would: Willing, optimistic, excited, and acutely conscious. He by no methodology expected to hope to be airlifted off Half of Dome for a tumor he had no knowing he used to be harboring. A year later, he used to be support on Half of Dome to gain that climb. Right here, in his like phrases, is how he made it through:

I’M AN EAST Coaster who started taking annual journeys out west to hike and backpack with my friend Tim in 2020. In June 2023, when I used to be 28, we made up our minds to head to Yosemite and added our friend Sam, who used to be in paramedic college with Tim. We didn’t salvage the lottery for permits to hike Half of Dome, so spent three days on the southern rim of Yosemite Valley on backcountry backpacking permits. At the cease of that time, we checked in with the ranger position and learned there used to be a final-minute cancellation, and scored Half of Dome permits.

We were comparatively beat up and drained, however I felt very good—I used to be ice climbing scheme forward of my mates. We acquired to Diminutive Yosemite Campground to protect the evening so we would hit it early the following day into Half of Dome.

Nonetheless when I aroused from sleep, I used to be extremely dizzy, and when I tried to head to the toilet, I could perchance perchance barely arise. This wasn’t fully contemporary for me—about a months before the time out, I started getting headaches, incessantly alongside with dizziness and nausea. I believed perchance I had Lyme disease so I went to my physician and we scheduled a CAT scan for dependable after my time out.

Nonetheless this felt totally different. I laid support in the tent and issues step by step acquired worse. It went from dizziness to the worst migraine of my life. My pals were checking my vitals and giving me some remedy.

Then, I started throwing up and I couldn’t switch my left arm or leg, and I used to be going interior and exterior of consciousness. They did a stroke take a look at known as the Cincinnati take a look at about a cases, and at one level, I couldn’t support up my left arm at all. For a transient period, I even lost all imaginative and prescient, however I could perchance perchance peaceable hear and search the advice of with them. They’d to name in a helicopter. Fortuitously, we were on the very most lifelike route alongside our route that had an position where a helicopter would possibly perchance perchance secure in.

After I aroused from sleep in the ICU, I felt comely, however the following morning, the surgeon told me, “Mr. Stewart, we found a mass in the support of your mind. We deem it be cancerous and we wish to characteristic the following day.”

I couldn’t deem it as a result of I used to be younger, I used to be exercising, and difficult effectively. I used to be in among the very most lifelike form I’ve ever been in. The final draw I wished to be used to be on the many side of the country without my pals and household, however there were concerns that the stress of flying would like an trace on the tumor. (Being at 6000-feet or extra of elevation in Yosemite would possibly perchance perchance had been why the symptoms were worse than when I used to be home at sea stage.)

For that variety of surgery, I for sure wished to head to Johns Hopkins—they’re one among the tip hospitals in phrases of any neurological remedy and it be in Baltimore, a couple hours some distance flung from where I stay. He and a doctor at Hopkins reviewed my file and cleared me to soar.

I used to be peaceable in shock, however trying to protect discontinuance it one thing at a time. Many cancers are treatable today, I told myself. Clinical doctors at Johns Hopkins believed I had glioblastoma, which is a gradual-stage cancerous tumor, and on average, you’ve got got three to 5 years to stay. He acknowledged that I could perchance perchance like surgery to protect discontinuance away the tumors, however they’d come support. It used to be that you just would possibly mediate of it can perchance perchance be a decrease grade, however they were rather assured in the diagnosis. That’s when I spotted this used to be for sure low.

We scheduled the surgery for 2 weeks later. The knowing used to be to protect discontinuance away as powerful of the tumor as that you just would possibly mediate of and perchance insert a chemotherapy wafer into the cavity where the tumor used to be.

It used to be a extremely murky time. At that level, your total dreams you’ve got got, your total property you would like to gain, it be esteem, “Hey, I form no longer like powerful time to gain all that.” The chemo and radiation beats you up rather low. Nonetheless I’m a Christian and I had this unexplainable peace. I believed, “let’s good secure the surgery over with, proceed from there, and notice what must be done.” I wished to no longer secure hung up on the what ifs or the future.

On July fifth 2023, I went in for a four-hour surgery that became correct into a six hours. After I got right here out of anesthesia, I endure in mind the medical doctors asserting something esteem, “we didn’t mediate we were going in reveal to, however we acquired the total tumor out.” They didn’t wish to insert a chemotherapy wafer, both. The tumor used to be in the occipital lobe, so I had extremely blurry imaginative and prescient and a few blindness in the initiating, however I used to be good so cheerful to hear the factual recordsdata. I knew there used to be peaceable a possibility for it to be cancerous, nonetheless it wasn’t gradual-stage glioblastoma.

A week and a half later, the surgeon known as me to teach, “Hey man, I form no longer secure to utter other folks this that continuously, however you gain no longer need any extra remedy as of dependable now.” At that level, they didn’t know precisely what it used to be, however they suspected it used to be a low-grade cancer.

Extra than a month later, I used to be told it used to be a uncommon non-cancerous childhood tumor that I’ve had perchance since I used to be in center college. It used to be unimaginative growing and wasn’t for sure affecting something else until recently, and until I used to be in that excessive elevation under stress.

They did a nefarious laying aside, which is the very most lifelike possibility for lowering your chances of having the tumor come support, and I secure MRIs on a typical basis to show screen issues. If it does come support, two medications good acquired licensed for stunting the event of this variety of tumor and killing it off.

Restoration used to be tough and took some time. I used to be struggling to gain each day duties esteem read, employ a phone, or originate meals, and, in the initiating, good trying out the window as the passenger in a vehicle used to be exhausting since my eyes needed to scan extra to make amends for the blind position. One in all the toughest parts used to be no longer being ready to power.

Two weeks after surgery, I could perchance perchance delivery up slowly exercising again. I integrated running and then biking and started lifting with excessive reps of sunshine weights. As I acquired stronger, I used to be doing 5 to six days of energy practising and about 15 miles of running a week. I also extinct hobbies esteem guitar to roar my eyes.

After I knew I used to be factual and that I could perchance perchance proceed on with my life, Tim, Sam, and I made up my mind to return to Yosemite. We received the lottery and bought six permits for Half of Dome so we invited three totally different pals.

In September 2024, comparatively better than a year after our first strive, I headed to Yosemite again. It felt peculiar to be at the identical campground I acquired flown out of. It used to be loopy to mediate support on how life used to be a year previously and how some distance I’d come. We were support—tumor-free and ready to triumph over what we failed the predominant time out.

We acquired up early and made obvious to like your total dependable gear including gloves with grip and clips. Whenever you occur to lope and you form no longer like these clips, you is inclined to be loss of life for obvious. Or no longer it is a fall-off on both side and ice climbing it is an adrenaline bustle. I’m no longer the largest fan of heights, so each step of ice climbing Half of Dome used to be rather unlucky, however I wasn’t going to let that pause me.

We all made it as a lot as the tip. It used to be good so composed to kick again up there, protect discontinuance it in, and to at final triumph over what we missed the year before. On top of the mountain, I believed of your total blessings that like took place in the final year despite what your total medical doctors told me. Though my eyes like improved a great deal, I peaceable support that blind position and search recordsdata from that to be eternal. Regardless, I for sure like learned to handle it and am support to doing rather powerful your total issues I extinct to gain, including riding (with a license restricted to daylight). I met a lady who’s now my fiance. I am so grateful for where I am now, when put next to a year previously.