Father Credits Facebook for Helping Discover Brain Tumor

He insisted on brain scan after reading posts describing similar symptoms
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 30, 2016 9:22 AM CDT
Father Credits Facebook for Helping Discover Brain Tumor
Browsing Facebook may have saved a man's life.   (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Welsh father of two Tom Walker considers himself "extremely lucky" that he happened to stumble upon two stories of Facebook friends with symptoms strikingly similar to his own. His doctor had chalked up his spotty vision and dizziness to vertigo, but it turns out he had a more than 2-inch long tumor growing on a fluid cavity toward the back of his brain, which was successfully removed and followed with a six-week course of radiation, reports the Western Mail in Wales. "If you or any of your loved ones are putting off going to the doctors for any reason, don't!" says the 36-year-old. "The sooner these things are found the better the chances are of beating it."

It all started when Walker began to notice being light-headed, especially when he'd turn his head from side to side. One night, playing with his kids, he collapsed after simply shaking his head, and knew he had to see his doctor. But after medication for an infection to help manage vertigo did nothing to alleviate his symptoms, Walker remembered reading on Facebook about the symptoms a colleague and a friend's 4-year-old daughter both had before being diagnosed with brain tumors. He then asked for a brain scan, and the tumor was found. Walker writes on Facebook that he "fortunately" had an "amazing surgeon" and that his tumor was "low grade," but he hopes his story will convince others to visit a doc if something seems off. (This woman's "pregnancy" fatally masked her own symptoms of cancer.)

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