“I was running around my apartment, I couldn’t read anything … I couldn’t remember what school I went to. I didn’t know what was happening.”

The Episode

Griffin Mason was sitting in his apartment on a Sunday afternoon in October. Halloween was Friday, but the weekend had passed, and classes would resume soon.

Mason, a sophomore studying kinesiology and health at Iowa State, sat down to work on homework that night, just like any other, getting ready for the week ahead of him.

Then something happened.

His material began to be difficult for him to read.

“I freaked out,” Mason said. “I couldn’t read things. I was running around my apartment [trying to read different words]. I knew I should be able to put these things together.”

Next, he started losing his memory and even forgot what school he went to.

“I knew I was in my apartment at school,” Mason said. “But, I couldn’t remember what school I was at. I couldn’t remember the name.”

Then his vision started to get worse.

“It’s weird,” Mason said. “It freaked me out. [I forgot] everything [I’ve] learned up to that point.”

Though, after about 30 minutes, it started to get better.

Mason regained his vision and memory and started doing some research.

“There [were] cases where migraines will cause the same symptoms I had,” Mason said. “So I didn’t do anything about it [right away].”

Earlier in the day, he had been experiencing some headaches, but he didn’t think much of it. He thought it was just a strange migraine.

*****

Mason was having a seizure.

An abnormal amount of blood had been rushing to his brain, specifically to the left part which deals with reading and memory, causing him to not make proper connections while reading.

Mason was experiencing symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, according to WebMD, though this was something much different. A brain tumor.

*****

Mason gathered himself and after researching what had happened, called his girlfriend, Ashton Ehrecke.

“I was out and about running errands,” Ehrecke said. “He called me. He tried to explain what had happened. You could tell he was kind of shooken up. I could tell he wasn’t able to describe it very well because he didn’t even understand what happened.”

Ehrecke, a junior at Iowa State, went to Mason’s apartment and stayed with him for the rest of the night to make sure he was alright. The next morning, he was fine.

Mason called his parents to explain what had happened that morning. They advised him to see a doctor.

He went to the Thielen Student Health Center where they narrowed it down to three things that it could have been: a migraine, like Mason had thought, a minor stroke or a tumor.

Although the doctors at Thielen said they suspected it to have just been a migraine, they sent Mason to the Mary Greeley Hospital across town later that day.

*****

In-between doctor visits, Mason grabbed a bite to eat with his best friend and soon-to-be roommate, Trevor Sabo. He told Sabo what had happened.

“It caught me off guard,” Sabo said. “He told me it could be three different options. I remember thinking, ‘Well, let’s just hope it’s a migraine.’”

Sabo was a teammate of Mason’s when they played hockey together for Iowa State’s club team.

“It’s crazy it came out of nowhere like that,” Sabo said. “One day he’s fine, the next day he’s having a seizure.”

*****

Mason went to Mary Greeley for his appointment. Although doctors suspected it was a migraine, as was previously thought, they did a brain scan anyway since he was already there.

He waited about 40 minutes for the doctor to return to the room. When he finally got back, he broke the news to Mason.

There was a tumor in the left side of his brain.

“I sat there, and I was like, ‘Shit,’” Mason said.

The sheer amount of shock took over.

“I wasn’t exactly expecting to hear it,” Mason said. “When I did [hear the news], I was extremely shocked and pretty speechless. At that moment, everything flashes through your mind, ‘Is this going to kill me? How much longer do I have?’

“I started thinking about everything I’ve done in my life. I pretty much just sat there for an hour in silence just trying to wrap my head around it.”

Ehrecke had also been waiting with him.

“It was kind of surreal,” Ehrecke said. “It was nothing you would imagine would happen to someone so young and healthy. It was a shock. Something you never expect to hear.”

The doctors had no clue how it got there. There was no certain thing that caused it, besides his body creating it as a fluke.

Ehrecke said that at the time it was the worst thing to hear, but luckily it was easier to remove than most brain tumors. 

Fortunately, Mason got a surgery scheduled for two days later at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The surgery would allow doctors to remove the tumor, but they had no way of knowing if it was benign or cancerous until after they sent it in for testing.

The doctors were able to remove the tumor and when the results came back, they showed that it was not cancerous.

Even so, after having brain surgery, the road to recovery is daunting.

The Road to Recovery

Mason is studying to become a strength and conditioning coach at Iowa State. Before his surgery he was active in playing hockey and going to the gym on a regular basis.

However, part of his recovery process was to remain as inactive as possible.

“I was a very active person,” Mason said. “I [was going] to the gym every day, [but] recovery involved sitting on a couch and not doing anything.”

Other restrictions that Mason had were not being able to lift anything heavier than five pounds for the next six weeks.

“It’s crazy how much you see your body deteriorate when you can’t move and can’t do anything,” Mason said.

Over the course of his recovery, Mason lost about 16 pounds in muscle and gained body fat. He had weighed 196 pounds before his surgery and sat at 179 pounds at the time.

“It’s been tough on me,” Mason said. “That’s not really how I like to live. But I can’t complain, I’m healing and doing better.”

Along with the inactivity, due to a law about having a seizure, Mason isn’t legally allowed to drive a car in the state of Iowa for six months. The same law applies in Minnesota, but only requires someone to stay off the road for three months.

“It’s been up and down,” Ehrecke said. “He was in a lot of pain. He was so used to being very active and I think that bothered him for the first month.

“He didn’t really have much he could do. He couldn’t walk around very much on his own.”

Mason also got a visit from his best friend when he was home for Thanksgiving break. Sabo grew up 45 minutes away from Mason in Illinois. 

When Sabo and his girlfriend visited Mason over break, what they saw was not the same person they knew prior to the surgery.

“[He was] completely different,” Sabo said. “He’s really into working out all the time. I know he can’t wait to get back into the swing of things. It’s got to be tough for him to kind of sit there and wait it out.”

*****

Now, although he isn’t 100 percent healthy, Mason is taking the next step in trying to return to the ice.

“He’s extremely talented,” Sabo said. “You can tell he just has this vision and just a passion for the game.”

Mason played nine games for Cyclone Hockey during his freshman year last season according to ACHAhockey.org.

“If he could make a return for at least one year, it would be pretty great,” Sabo said. “I think it would be really fun. I’d get to play with [my] best friend.”

He knew there would be some obstacles to overcome to get back to 100 percent, but it’s not stopping him.

“In the long term, nothing’s [holding me] back,” Mason said.