Being Struck By Lightning

For those who don’t know me, my name is Matthew Cochran. I am a 22 year old, college student currently attending UAH. I am an Army brat (Hooah) and have had the opportunity to grow up all over the United States. I attended three high schools and now have attended three colleges as well, so staying in one place has never been my forte. However, since my dad retired I have called the great state of Alabama my home; and as an avid Alabama fan, Roll Tide.  I also was just diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

    Some of you know the situation but I haven’t yet informed most of the public. I was diagnosed with DIPG on Memorial Day this year. DIPG is almost always a fatal type of brain cancer. It is usually diagnosed in children from 3-10 years of age, so my diagnosis is extremely rare. My doctor said it is on par with being struck by lightning. See, I knew I was special; just not in the way I’d imagined.

     So, most of you are wondering what the heck is DIPG. DIPG stands for Diffused Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (even Microsoft Word didn't recognize Glioma, it needs more publicity). It is located on the upper brainstem known as the pons. I've never been a particularly great writer so we are going to push my metaphorical prowess to its limits.  Imagine a bunch of roots growing into a sidewalk, crumbling and distorting everything in its path, making the path faulty and less efficient. In essence that is what’s happening to my brain. The cancer is growing into my brainstem like those roots. Just like messing up the sidewalk, it also is messing up some of my functionality and slowly making the pons less functional.

Operation to remove the cancer is a definite no-go since it is intertwined in the pons. The pons also provide many life supporting functions (heartbeat, blood pressure, some motor skills and well…life) so radiation is the main form of treatment for this cancer. The treatment is meant to try and slow down the growth rate of the cancer, hopefully making it go dormant. Hopefully the dormancy will last a while, but they usually give it 2 to 8 months on average before it starts growing again.       

    I have decided to make a blog to inform every one of my situation, giving me an outlet to display some of my thoughts and emotions, tell my story and, more importantly, to inform more people of this rare and deadly form of cancer known as DIPG.