The Miracle    By Pete Gonzales 4/27/2007
In the summer of 1993, my wife and I were getting ready to celebrate our first anniversary. It had been a great year for us. However, in July I came down with what appeared to be a common case of Bronchitis that actually lasted several weeks. Afterwards I began noticing an odd problem with my vision. This first picture is a typical photo which I'm using as a reference point (see fig1.).
Fig1
Now take a look at the manner in which I began noticing things appearing to me (fig2). No other symptoms at this time. At first I thought it was only my imagination. After several more days I noticed it was a definite problem. So I went back to my doctor who didn't really understand what I meant. I was diagnosed with a deep inner ear infection which he believed was causing "vertigo". It was about this time that I began to get dizzy spells and actually fell down a few times due to severe dizziness. Because my doctor wasn't alarmed or just wasn't understanding my problems, I continued to work and was attending night school at DeVry University! The point to remember is that while I felt myself standing perfectly straight the world appeared to be leaning to the left constantly.
Fig2
A few weeks later I returned once again to my doctor, having finished my antibiotics for my "ear infection", with no improvement except that I did not appear to have an ear infection after his examination. He then sent me to an ear doctor who ran several tests and then decided to send me out for an MRI. Keep in mind I was still working, driving and going to school. Some days however I couldn't even get my balance after waking up in the morning and ended up missing entire days of work and school. I also began experiencing the most horrific bouts of vertigo that lasted what seemed like several minutes at time. My vision continued to slip to the left with each day! The memories of the vertigo and dizzyness still frightens me to this day! The fact that I didn't die from a car accident is in itself a miracle! With each day things kept getting worse and new symptoms began to occur. I was seeing stars while sitting down doing nothing but watching TV. A very strange hollow/numbing sensation began in my head, so hard to describe the actual feeling. One morning on the way to work I got a strange taste in my mouth. I pulled over and spit up a large amount of blood. I knew I was going to die but without any real alarm or concern from my doctors I didn't know what to think. I was ready to meet my maker (so I thought) and didn't tell anyone about the blood. I was so confused and getting very emotional for everything.
Fig3
Finally, I got my MRI and received a phone call just 30 minutes later. I'll never forget the call. "Mr. Gonzales we've made an appointment for you with Dr. Lewis Brown a Neurosurgeon. He's expecting you this afternoon, we found a cyst in your brain near the cerebellum! I drove myself to meet Dr. Brown who was an elderly man with a great bedside manner he was very kind and discussed what he saw in the MRI films after giving me a thorough neurological exam. This is how I remember the meeting: Dr. Brown: "Do you know why you're here?" PG:      "They found a cyst in my head"? Dr. Brown: "A Cyst? Actually it's a tumor and it has to come out right away! If we don't remove it you will die!" PG:      "You mean cancer?" Dr. Brown: "Well we won't know that till after we remove it!" PG:     "When?" Dr. Brown: "Well today is Friday, lets operate on Monday!" This is about how bad everything looked to me right before my surgery!
Fig4
I realized later that it was a blessing to not have been given a long time from diagnosis to surgery, less time to worry and dwell on all the different things that could go wrong etc... I'll never forget that Saturday night 2 days before the surgery, I told my wife that we should go out, we went to downtown tempe near the university and I took in all the busy "college life" atmosphere. We walked for about an hour and I was exhausted but didn't want to go home. Inside I realized this could easily be my last weekend and my poor newlywed wife may loose her husband a little after one year of marriage in addition to leaving my children fatherless. When Sunday came around I realized that if I pulled through this thing just fine I would loose credit for my first semester at DeVry so I went to the computer lab and did the last 3 labs in about 6 hours of nonstop work. I put a package together and turned it into the office with a note saying, "Here's the rest of my labs, having brain surgery Monday please give me an incomplete and I'll take the final when I get better!" Honest to God!!
My surgery was on October 4th. The day arrived with a great feeling of anticipation, I felt the prayers of my family and friends carrying me. I wasn't scared and I began to feel very optimistic that I was going to pull through this thing with flying colors! Dr. Brown went into the waiting room and told the ugly truth to my wife and family. I realized I could die during such a delicate surgical procedure, but I never gave any thought to the fact that I could have lost my sight, memory, hand eye coordination any number of issues! The doctor was blunt but very soft spoken about what he needed to accomplish. My wife broke down and my father and mother were stunned at how dangerous the procedure was going to be. However, Dr. Brown assured them I would die without the surgery because my brain was filling up with blood and pressure was building up inside of my head.
The surgery lasted about 5 hours and afterwards I remember being woken up by a nurse and my wife! "Pete", "Pete" can you hear us?? I realized I was still alive and I felt so tired but I was able to get out a few words. Shaking off some of the groggy feeling, I was able to say man I feel like I've been beaten up by baseball bat!! I was hooked up to so many things it was so uncomfortable. An IV was stiched at my neck because they had a tube running into my heart during the surgery and I had monitors everywhere I could only lay on my right side since the tumor was on the left side and the incision was from the middle of my neck to the top of my head. The 26 staples looked like a large zipper on my head!
The next time I woke up, I began praying a prayer of thanksgiving and I began to cry. I envisioned my Father and my uncles gatherd around in a circle and them singing the songs of their fathers and it stirred me up. Later I found out they were actually all together huddled in a circle praying for me. So I had in fact felt their prayers!
My recovery was relatively easy and largely uneventful, except my wife was taking care of this 220lb baby that could barely walk during the first few weeks! I can't thank her enough for the care and support she gave me during that crucial time.
The Miracle Realized
The day after my surgery when I felt my father and uncles praying for me, I thought that I had lived through a miracle just making it to another day. However, the miracles just kept coming. I did in fact go back to school and passed the final I had missed. Two and half years later I graduated with honors while working fulltime and attending school fulltime. So am I bragging on myself? No way, I'm saying that God is a miracle working God, Loving and Gracious. He is the God of the Second chance and many more miracles followed me after the operation. This last image is of my most recent MRI shot with contrast. Notice the dark circle which appears on the right side about 2 inches from the top, thats the area in which the tumor was removed from the large void is now filled with fluid and scare tissue. It's remained that way for 14 years! Now here's the greatest miracle, take a look online for the average lifespan of someone who's had a low grade glioma. The average life expectancy is 5 to 8 years! The scan you see here was taken just over a month ago with the same results I had just after the surgery. "All Glory and Honor belong to the Lord"! Thank you Jesus for the Miracle you worked in my life!
<--The cavity where the tumor was removed is 3.5 centimeters long