Brain Tumor Awareness Month: Peoria father shares story of operation

PEORIA, Ariz. - A Peoria father underwent a rare brain surgery last year and made a full recovery in just a day.

He's telling his story during Brain Tumor Awareness Month, along with a message.

Last year, Jonathan Parafiniuk, a husband and father of two, kept getting bad headaches.

"I had some headaches and took a lot of ibuprofen and then these headaches just wouldn't go away," he said.

There was always a smile on his face even though he was misdiagnosed a few times. Eventually, his wife said to go to the emergency room.

Jonathan Parafiniuk and his family

"I was waiting there for a long time and the doctor came in and pulled up a seat next to me, and I was immediately like, OK that's not good," Parafiniuk said.

It was a brain tumor causing his headaches.

He sought out Dr. Michaela Lee at Banner University Medical Center. She said because of the location of the tumor, doctors performed a rare surgery where Parafiniuk would sit up while under anesthesia.

"Everything here just falls down because of gravity and that opens up these corridors for us to put these endoscopes in through a small incision and craniotomy this size and take the entire tumor out," Dr. Lee explained.

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"They have you seated, so the cerebellum hangs down and that gives them just enough of a window to weave their small tools into the center of the brain," Parafiniuk said.

Before the surgery, he didn't know how it would go.

"I think my biggest fear was not being around for my kids because you hear ‘brain tumor’ and you think it almost sounds like a death sentence," he said.

The operation was a success.

He was back home the next day and snorkeling in Hawaii just a few months later. 

For Brain Tumor Awareness Month, he has a message for everyone out there who is unsure of what's wrong with them.

Advocate for yourself if something is not right.