GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — This is an update to a story 13 ON YOUR SIDE first brought you shortly before Christmas, when we shared the story of Max Merget as he was set undergo his fourth brain surgery after being diagnosed with brain cancer for the fifth time. Here’s a look at his recovery.
Merget said, “Post-surgery, they were calling me the beast.”
Doctors were amazed by the success of the surgery.
Merget didn’t know what to expect but had been warned about the various possibilities. He said, “I was fully prepared to wake up that afternoon with all sorts of disabilities.”
The 28-year-old was told he might wake up from surgery without being able to use the right side of his body.
The operation happened just two days before Christmas.
“The heavy emotions came from saying ‘I love you' to both my parents and my wife and my daughter,” said Merget.
It’s a process he’s been through before. He was diagnosed with brain cancer the first time at the age of three.
This latest time marked surgery number four. Always in the same spot: The area that controls movement on his right side.
Because of advancements in medicine, this time, Merget would be awake for most of the 11-hour surgery.
“When the surgeons are poking around in your brain, you don’t have any pain receptors on your actual brain,” said Merget.
He was talking and even moving during the procedure, even after doctors removed the portion of his brain that controls movement on his right side.
“The neurosurgeons were expecting me to not be able to do this in surgery but yet, I was,” said Merget.
He said this left doctors stunned and surprised. Merget told 13 ON YOUR SIDE health officials believe that because his first surgery was at the age of three, it’s possible that his brain found another way to control movement on his right side.
“My brain rewired itself,” said Merget.
The young father and engineer is still relying on physical therapy to regain strength on his right side. This includes mentally training his brain to recognize what that looks like.
Merget is also working on starting a Max Your Brain podcast to share more about his experience as a cancer survivor.
“I feel like I cheated the brain cancer experience,” he said.
Merget was back at work just two and a half weeks after surgery.
When we spoke with him before his surgery, he told us his greatest fear was losing movement on his ride side and not being able to hold his baby son who’s due to be born next month. It looks like that will not be an issue.
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