Ryan Hegefeld

On August 9, 2012, our lives were forever changed. Ryan was 31 years old when he had a seizure while asleep in the middle of the night. He had never had one before and was not having any problems leading up to the seizure.

Ryan was rushed to Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital by ambulance. A CAT scan confirmed our worst fears that there was a mass in his brain the size of a golf ball. They admitted Ryan and started running more tests to confirm what they found. They did a MRI that showed it was a tumor on his front right temporal Lobe.

We decided to go ahead and have the surgery at Memorial Hermann once we met with his wonderful surgeon Dr. Paul Boone. He told us that from the scans he could tell us that is was most likely an Astrocytoma but the grade they could tell after surgery. Ryan’s tumor was located in an area that they were able to remove the whole tumor. It wasn’t until two weeks later at a follow up appointment that we were told that the pathology report came back as Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3. We met with the oncologist at Memorial Hermann to get their full course of treatment and options. We knew we wanted to go to MD Anderson once we found out it was cancer, but I wanted more than one opinion.

Through a great friend at work, I got the name of a doctor at MD Anderson who her friend has been going to as well. Our first appointment at MD Anderson was on Ryan’s birthday – September 7, 2012. We are so very thankful to Dr. Conrad and his team and everyone else we have worked with at MD Anderson. MD Anderson’s pathology report came back the same diagnosis – Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3. They started treatment right away. Ryan did six weeks of radiation, then two weeks later, he started his chemo rounds of Temodar. He was on Round 17 in February 2014. The plan is to go to Round 24, which completed in August 2014. He gets his MRI’s every two months and we are so beyond thankful and grateful that as of today, all his scans have been clear.

Ryan and I first met when I was 20 years old and he was 21. We have been together for over 11 years and married over five of those. We have an amazing little boy named Landon. Ryan was born and raised here in Houston and attended the University of Houston. Ryan is a loving father, husband, son, brother, uncle and friend. I am so proud of him for being as strong as he is and never giving up because I know I will never give up either. This journey we have been on has never been easy but we have faith and the amazing support of our families and friends.