When Christian Nolen started to have trouble moving his entire left side, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And that was where things got weird. The surgeons asked Nolen to stay awake and play guitar during the operation to remove it.
Well, apparently, it's not that weird.
Ricardo Komotar, M.D., director of the brain tumor program at Sylvester said,
"When a tumor is involving or near a critical part of the brain — something that controls the ability to speak or understand language or move — we want to do the surgery awake to continually monitor the patient, so you know if you start to violate normal brain functions."
If the patients are asleep, "the surgeries actually become much more dangerous because you can take out a tumor that involves normal brain function and cause real harm without knowing it."
That sounds terrifying.
I wonder what they'd have me do?
- Rail about the government?
- Write silly stories?
- Make stupid puns?
They'd just think they broke something in my brain if I tried to play guitar. As far as other instruments go, I tried learning piano once or twice, but it's not an easy instrument to pick up.
Don't fret for Nolen, the operation was a success, and he is already up and playing guitar without a scalpel in his head.
Which, let's be honest, isn't nearly as impressive as the other way round.
He still has some treatments and rehab to do, but it sounds like there's a happy ending to this song.
Here's the video:
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