Getting airlifted across the state for brain surgery in the middle of the school year could be a horrid nightmare for most; yet, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) student Andrew Smith proved this to be nothing he couldn’t handle.
“I got the news that this whole adventure was gonna start a few days before that because I went in to go into the doctor’s because I had some headaches, and they did a CT scan, and then rushed me to the emergency room at St. Mary’s,” Smith said, “They airlifted me out of Junction and over to UC Health [in Denver].”
Smith’s sudden knowledge of his brain tumor left little time to process the shock before his operation; yet, this did not inhibit his natural sense of humor.
“[The neurosurgeon] was the one that was lucky enough to remove my tumor, which I named Benji,” Smith said, “I don’t know why I named it Benji, but it just felt like it fit. And so he took out my tumor, and I spent three extra days in the ICU that I wasn’t supposed to because there was a hole in my breathing tube.”
Smith’s use of humor is nothing new and was a major component in his recovery process.
“We’ve just used humor,” Smith’s girlfriend and CMU student Lauren Hanifin said, “Yeah, it sucks, but we just get through it the way we get through it. Sometimes it might be more unconventional than how other people do it, but it’s what works for him and is what keeps him positive.”
Smith’s decision to name objects came to him as more of a final option of things he could do, yet turned it into an activity to pass the time.
“I was just so bored with the fact that I’m just laying there, and my brain can’t function with TV, so it’s not like I could really watch TV, that always made me anxious and feel more sick,” Smith said, “And so I decided to name things and talk with my parents.”
Though Smith faced grave danger many others never will, he managed to find fun stories in the darkness of surgery and recovery.
“I did wake up speaking French,” Smith said, “I learned French in high school. I didn’t end up taking all four years, but I loved my French class, and I took enough to know how to curse people out in French, and that’s all that I cared about. So many doctors heard some vulgar, vulgar terms in French and that’s where I came out.”
In addition to the excellent care Smith said he received at both UC Health Denver, and Children’s Hospital, Hanifin argues Smith’s positive attitude is what helped him the most.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s him that’s made the situation, the way it is,” Hanifin said, “Because of the person that he is. He doesn’t take things and it doesn’t break him down.”
This is exemplified in Smith’s ambitious hopes for the near future, refusing to give up hope on returning to his old passions.
“I hope my teammates end up finding me out on the rugby pitch one of these days, but I don’t know if they will or not, it’s not really our season right now,” Smith said, “But at this point, I’ve finished radiation, chemo will be coming up in early March, and then on top of that, I’ve started lifting again, playing rugby, my life is returning to normal by the day, and honestly, once radiation ended, a big jump happened for me.”
With major improvements and nothing to stop Smith, rugby players and the entire CMU community can expect nothing but the best.
