Prayers are requested for Luke Tegtmeier, who posted the following on Facebook on December 13:
I’d like to share a major personal health update for those of you who might be interested.
Super short version:
On November 30, I had a seizure. Thankfully, my brother was eating breakfast with me when it happened. I spent three days in the Wooster and Akron hospitals, where I had another seizure. It was determined that I have a cyst in my brain causing the seizures. Surgery to remove the cyst will have to wait for my fractured neck vertebrae to heal (about 6 weeks). Many more tests and details to be determined.
Currently, I’m not really allowed to be alone in case of having another seizure. Of course, I’m not allowed to drive or operate heavy equipment (or climb into pipe organs!). So I’ll be living with my parents for about 6 months as I’m worked through this process.
I’m EXTREMELY grateful for my wonderful family – especially my should-have-been-a-nurse mother, my semi-retired dad, and my sister and brother-in-law that are easily able to drive me to a work colleague’s house for me to go to work. Also super grateful that my brother was with me when the first seizure happened. An hour later, I probably would have been driving to Holmes county to buy a piece of furniture – scary to think what might have happened there, or inside an organ chamber, or while I was doing almost anything alone in my house!
Also feeling deeply blessed with my workplace – I have wonderfully kind, flexible colleagues that are happy to keep me busy with a nice mix of office work and light pipe voicing, while they take on the more complicated travel and tuning work that I would normally be doing. They’re also very kind to drive me around.
Some more medical details in case you’re interested:
For the past two years or so, I noticed that I would occasionally struggle to come up with words. Not just failing to remember names; I would not be able to use the English language for a few minutes. No one ever really seemed to notice this behavior, and I was never able to truly document it. I now understand that this is called a “focal seizure”, and doctors tell me that it makes sense given the placement of my cyst, which is on the left side of my brain over my short-term memory (so if I can’t remember your name, I have an excuse!!). I’ve never claimed to have a particularly strong memory, so I’ll be very curious to see if that improves over the next year after the surgery happens!
I have no memory of actually going through the seizures. Mark says that I gave him his oatmeal, sat down, but then “froze” with an arm outstretched, and fell off the counter stool. Probably hit the floor fairly hard. But I woke up, and actually walked out to the ambulance on my own feet (don’t remember that!). My memory from the time in the hospital is very unclear. My left shoulder was hurt somehow in the fall – I’m still being very careful with it two weeks later, but nothing was broken there. The X-ray told us it was a “soft tissue injury”.
However, vertebrae C7 is “marginally cracked”. This is apparently pinching the nerve that goes to my right index and middle finger tips. At first, they both had very strong pins-and-needle feelings, making me nervous about continuing as a keyboardist! But I’m relieved to report that the middle finger is already almost completely healed, and I think I played church basically fine last Sunday. The X-ray also showed that T5 (mid-back) had a compression fracture, but no Doctor ever mentioned this to us.
One of the few things that we know so far is that the neck fracture needs to be completely healed before we can think about the brain surgery to allow the brain surgeon to move my head freely. So the neck Dr. will look at it closely on January 14. The neck brace is the biggest frustration overall at this point – it tends to exhaust my upper back causing soreness. But thankfully, this soreness goes away almost immediately upon lying down.
It was a real learning curve trying to rest in a bed starting in the hospital – I have discovered how hard it can be to get in and out of bed, and how hard to even roll over when you’ve had a major health issue occur! Wow! I’m deeply thankful to report that I can now get in and out of bed in a relatively normal way again. Also very happy to report that I’m sleeping very well – the neck brace is actually kinda nice for sleeping!
The main medicine that I’m on to help with the cyst is called Keppra. It’s supposed to stop the seizures that are caused by the cyst. I’m relieved to report that I haven’t had a seizure – of either kind – since starting that medicine. And no one has noticed any side effects (basically irritability) since I’ve started it. But of course I will be very limited in my activities until about 6 months after the surgery to remove the cyst – no driving, climbing ladders, or even being alone. Hence living with my parents for the next 6 months or so.
While in the hospital for 3 days, I had 3 CAT scans, an X-ray, an MRI, and a brief EEG.
On December 26, I’m scheduled to spend 3-5 days at the Cleveland Clinic where they will monitor me closely to observe more clues about the effect the cyst is having on my brain, so that they can plan the surgery carefully. This will include a Neuro-psych test and a functional MRI, plus others if they can fit them in.
I’ve had nothing but very positive experiences with all three main doctors so far: Bingaman will be the one leading the surgery, but he is planning to reach out to another surgeon because it will involve a slightly different part of my skull than his usual area of expertise. Dr. Nwachuku is watching my neck vertebrae, and Dr. Galla was a very kind and patient doctor to explain my Epileptic seizures, and what to expect in the future. My understanding is that my seizures can be described as Epileptic because of the nature of them. But I do NOT have Epilepsy.
Similarly, I have a brain cyst, which is technically considered a brain tumor, but it is NOT cancerous. Far less dramatic, thankfully.
While I’m certainly not happy about this medical event, in many ways I’m thankful that it’s happening to me, instead of so many of you, my friends. I have no children to worry about, and I’m DEEPLY blessed with family close by that is especially talented at caring for me. I’m also basically a pretty healthy guy – super proud that I ran a 5K with my brother on Thanksgiving day (9:13/mile)! (Why didn’t the seizure happen while I was running??) And nothing else is really wrong with my body. And my work is flexible enough that I can continue to work (and earn money!) while waiting for more details on the medical treatment to expect.
So overall, I’m actually in a great mood about all of this!!
If any of you have insights about brain cysts, I’d be curious to learn more. The internet is overwhelmingly full of details, but we are finding that the details tend to not quite line up with our understanding of my particular situation.
I’ll do what I can to share updates as I find out more about the process I’ll be going through. Deepest thanks to you all for your prayers and thoughts as I work through this process.
