18th September: Almost back to walking normally, physiotherapist says running again someday is a "realistic possibility"

25th May: Able to walk again, albeit at a slow shuffle.

Update 15th April: The tumor has been removed. Next step recovery.

Update 6th of March: My latest scans show that (A) it still hasn't spread, and (B) radiation therapy was effective and shrank the tumor significantly. Next step; removal.

Update 14th of Feb: Radiation therapy complete. They say it'll be about six weeks til the surgery to remove it.

Update 2: Finally some good news; scans show it hasn't spread beyond the primary tumor, and I've started radiation therapy to kill that one.

Update: Turns out it is cancer. Might still be curable though, so trying to stay optimistic for a positive outcome.

Original Post: Dunno why I'm posting this here except that over the past 9.5 years VGC has been almost like a second online home/family for me, a special place where I feel accepted, and I wanted to give an explanation as to why my behaviour in this coming months may be a bit irrational or over the top.

So yeah, just got some unfortunate news from my doctor. The positive side is though,the prognosis is good; this particular kind of tumor most often turns out to be benign. Still, I won't know for sure if it's benign or malignant until they remove it, which could take a few weeks/months.

As someone with OCD and an intense phobia of serious illness, I'm under a huge amount of stress right now as you can imagine, and so while I'll still be posting here, I'm going to try not to participate in the kind of intense debates I usually get into in order to minimize this stress.

I apologize in advance if I lose my cool over the following months, I will try my best not to.

Thank you all for your understanding, and for just generally being an awesome community of people.

Damn. That sucks. I hope you get better soon.

Thanks man. As far as tumors go, the chances of a positive outcome are pretty good with this type, so I'm trying to stay positive. If all goes well, it should all be over with in a couple of months. It is kinda terrifying though as illness is a central focus of my anxiety disorder.

I don't think I've ever agreed with any of your comments that I've seen but your behavior on this site is really polite which I respect. I hope you get through this in one piece for yourself and your loved ones.

Cheers. I do try to be as civil as I can, even when I strongly disagree with people. 

As to getting through it one piece, that will definitely not be happening, as technically a piece of me will be surgically removed haha. Thankfully it's a piece I can do without. But thank you.

Glad to hear the prognosis is good. And like you said, try not to worry and be positive! You don't need the extra stress. Easy to say I know, but I'm sayin' it.

Hoping for the best. Stay positive, and try to do anything but think about it.

That's really sad to hear. I guess this a reminder that we should take measures to keep ourselves in good health where we can. Hope you get better! I can't imagine this site without you (not to be cheesy).

I wish you the best and a smooth recovery, man. I was shocked when I realized you're the OP. I think it goes without saying that you're still very young, and being myself someone that is also extremely fearful of illness, I can only imagine the staggering amount of pressure, fear, and anxiety you must be having right now. Don't think about it and always have a positive outlook, that's really the only thing I can say.

really good to hear that there is a high chance of positive outcome to this and it's great that you're already working with doctors and health professionals even though you have a phobia of medical conditions (tbh a fear of getting sick isn't really irrational a fear to have) but if you are offered treatment which will remove or shrink it go for them asap, if someone offers you apple cider vinegar as the cure to it.... take the bottle and shove it right up that persons anus as far as you can, you can use it as a test of your strength to make sure you're keeping muscles active!

I know it's hard to do right now as well Curl but try not to worry and trust that your doctors will do everything that they are trained to do to help you, stress and negative feelings can make people very sick even without any other things wrong with them so try to stay positive and like you said avoid unneeded arguing on here... or you know what, maybe the odd rant related to Video game sales and other non serious matters might draw your mind off the worry over this thing.

Sending all the positive vibes your way man, you get yourself better soon alright.