After a series of intense migraines, a West Columbia man found out he had an inoperable brain tumor.
But, he says the great support he's gotten from the community is making his diagnosis much easier.
You can find Aaron Graves strumming a guitar, or spending time with his family.
But in recent times he found himself dealing with his health.
"I just had this, not light-headed feeling, but more of a swimmy-headed feeling and, I mean, I even wrote that off. I was like, 'I just had cereal for breakfast and a lot of coffee and so I just feel strange," Graves said.
In March his sight started to get fuzzy. After going to the ER he found out he had a brain tumor along the front of his skull.
"The neurosurgeon there was like, 'If it was an egg or a ball I would feel confident about going in and trying to scoop it out or something,'" he said.
Graves was told to head to Duke University where they lead the East coast in brain tumor research.
'We were like, 'I have a brain tumor, we want to see Dr. Freeman,' and they were like, 'What? Everybody wants to see Dr. Freeman.' But, by luck, he was the surgeon on call," Graves said.
After monitoring the tumor, it's been decided that it needs immediate attention.
"They were like, 'There's a spot that's growing that we weren't planning on and it's growing more aggressively than we thought, so we want to do radiation right now,' so that's where we're about to go," he said.
Back home support for Graves will continue. Many local businesses are holding fundraisers, even naming food items after him, to help with medical bills
"I was talking to somebody I was like, 'Man, it's kind of a bummer that it takes getting cancer for my dreams to come true, it's like I get my own burrito lunch special,'" he said.
With humor like that, being optimistic is the only thing Graves can be.
"I'm trying to stay positive. Trying not to despair over it because whatever is going to happen is going to happen," Graves said.
Graves will go to Duke's Medical Center on Monday for six weeks of radiation therapy.
He plans to blog about his progress. To see how Graves is doing or donate you can go to www.tumorschmumor.com.
