ENCORE: How a man with a brain tumour rebooted his memory
It is estimated that about 55,000 Canadians are living with brain tumours, and every day 27 people are added to that list.
A diagnosis can be devastating — even when the tumour discovered is benign. Experts say there has been a paradigm shift in the approach to treatment and increasingly, surgeons are using minimally-invasive methods to reduce benign tumours rather than destroy them.
It was like pieces of my life were just dropping like rain droplets.- Demetri Kofinas
New Yorker Demetri Kofinas was diagosed with craniopharyngioma in 2009. He was 28 at the time.
"I went in for an MRI and a tech there goes, 'Yep, it's definitely craniopharyngioma.' And I was like, 'Huh?'"
Demetri Kofinas shares his journey coping with his diagnosis and what his future might look like in the documentary, Mind and Matter.
"I had a fear about being lost in eternity, sort of, just falling into darkness," Kofinas says. "What was most terrifying was that I might lose everyone. I might lose myself, also."
Kofinas describes the moment when he regained his lost memories.
"I would just be sitting in my hospital bed and memories would come back … I describe it like rain. It was like pieces of my life were just dropping like rain droplets."
After surviving a poor diagnosis, Kofinas is grateful for what the experience has given him.
"I had such an amazing life as a result of the fact that I had to confront my mortality."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post.
The documentary Mind and Matter was produced by Leif Zapf-Gilje's. The Current's documentary editor is Joan Webber.