Finding Answers: Jeff’s Journey to a Meningioma Diagnosis and Recovery

After almost 22 years of marriage and four kids, Kris Speers noticed that her 40-year-old husband, Jeff, was subtly changing. After working as a program manager at Tinker Air Force Base for 19 years, he suddenly lost all interest in his job. He resigned from work and bought a landscaping business seemingly out of nowhere. Jeff was analytical and driven — he had two master’s degrees in aerospace and defense, and this impulsive decision was totally out of character. However, Kris hoped that the change would help him feel excited about work again and supported his decision.

Jeff’s personality continued to change, and he was struggling at work. He started forgetting some landscaping projects and was unable to finish others. He lost interest in his entire life and seemed constantly tired and despondent. Kris knew something was wrong with Jeff and recognized that it was negatively impacting their marriage and family, but she didn’t know what to do.

They started counseling together and Jeff was diagnosed with ADHD. A new medication was started, and the couple hoped that once it took effect, Jeff would feel better. After nine months of treatment there was no relief — in fact, Jeff’s symptoms were continuing to worsen. He was now experiencing headaches and was frequently unable to finish his thoughts or sentences. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and although he visited a doctor many times, he was offered little more than over-the-counter pain relievers, and his condition continued to decline.

In spring 2023, Jeff sold the landscaping business. He was listless, irritable, and had lost all sense of purpose. He started work as a remote contractor for an aerospace company but eventually gave that up as well. Getting out of bed was becoming more and more difficult, and it took him 15 minutes to tie his shoelaces.

“I didn’t know what was wrong. Was it a mental health thing? Was it a mid-life crisis?” said Kris. “Jeff was taking his depression medication daily and we were having counselling once a week and he just wasn’t getting any better.”

In December 2023, tests showed that Jeff’s testosterone levels were low. Low levels of testosterone in men can cause a range of changes in mood, ranging from poor concentration to decreased energy, symptoms of depression, and brain fog, among others. Jeff started daily testosterone injections, but still found no relief for his symptoms, which were continuing to progress. By this time, Jeff had also developed urinary incontinence, which was rapidly worsening alongside the headaches.

Kris took Jeff to the emergency room at a local hospital in February 2024, where a doctor ordered a lower back MRI, and checked his prostate. He was diagnosed with severe depression, while his incontinence was attributed to the testosterone injections, which were stopped.

Finding Strength

Over the next few months Jeff further declined — getting out of bed was such a tremendous struggle he often didn’t bother. Kris described him as a shell of his former self and noticed that his behavior was as though he was constantly inebriated or on narcotics. She was at a loss as to how she could help him. Their marriage was struggling, and with Jeff unable to work, their finances also took a hit. Kris worked full-time as a dental hygienist and did her best to manage the home and their four kids—ages 14, 11, and 2.

Four years after Jeff’s symptoms began, Kris started to feel as though she’d never get her husband back. They’d been together since she was 15 years old, and she loved him dearly. She relied heavily on her faith to get by, and prayer became her lifeline.

“I prayed constantly. I live by the Scripture that says, He will not fear bad news; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord, and that helped me to not be fearful,” said Kris. “I kept praying that the Lord would bring my husband back to me. Jeff is everything to our family.”

In April 2024, Jeff and Kris went to their eldest daughter’s track-meet. Their two-year-old twin girls were with a babysitter to try and give them an opportunity to enjoy the time together, but Jeff seemed “empty.” Normally the day would be fun, with the couple talking and laughing, but Jeff wandered about alone. Kris watched her husband and prayed, and then she noticed that he was dragging his right foot ever so slightly. It occurred to her that the symptoms may be neurological, and she convinced Jeff to make another trip to the emergency room.

Jeff went to the emergency room the next morning and told the doctor that, on top of his other symptoms, he was dragging his right foot. Brain imaging revealed that Jeff had a mass the size of a grapefruit pushing on his frontal lobes — most likely a benign tumor called a meningioma.

What is a Meningioma?

A meningioma is a tumor that originates from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord — the meninges. Meningiomas arise within the central nervous system but outside of the brain and nerves themselves, resulting in a mass that can put pressure on nearby brain structures, nerves, and blood vessels as it grows. Meningioma is the most common benign intracranial tumor and occurs in approximately 97 out of every 100,000 people annually. They occur more frequently in women, and the risk of diagnosis increases with age.

In the United States, more than 170,000 adults over 35 are diagnosed with meningioma each year. They typically grow slowly over many years and symptoms may be absent or very subtle at first. Symptoms vary considerably depending on the location of the meningioma; however, common presentations may include:

• Changes in vision, including double vision or blurriness
• Headaches, typically worse in the morning
• Hearing loss or ringing in the ears, especially on just one side
• Memory loss
• Loss of smell
• Seizures
• Weakness in the arms or legs, especially on just one side
• Difficulty speaking or finding one’s words

Jeff’s meningioma was causing severe compression of his frontal lobes, which are responsible for higher cognition including executive function, decision-making, emotional self-regulation, memory, problem-solving, impulse control, motor function, and social interaction. Damage or dysfunction in the frontal lobes frequently presents as changes in personality, especially impulsivity, or difficulty with concentration and planning.

While the diagnosis was shocking to Jeff and Kris, the meningioma explained everything that Jeff had been experiencing.

“As soon as I found out Jeff had a tumor, I realized that I might get my husband back,” said Kris. “I looked at him and said, this is treatable — we’ve got this. This was an answer to prayer.”

Jeff and Kris met neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Graffeo, M.D., M.S., assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, and they were provided with a treatment plan.

The Day of Surgery

On April 30, the day of surgery, Kris gathered with friends and family in the waiting room.

“We spent most of the day in prayer for Jeff and Dr. Graffeo,” remembers Kris. “I was so excited, knowing my husband would soon be back. Our friends and family were with me, giving Jeff so much love and support.”

After making a small incision in Jeff’s scalp, Dr. Graffeo and his team removed the tumor using a craniotomy, or a temporary window in the skull that provides a working corridor for the neurosurgeons. As expected, the tumor was coming from the lining of the skull and compressing the brain, characteristic of a meningioma.

“Inside the skull but outside the brain there is layer that we call ‘dura’ — it’s like a thick leather bag that contains your spinal fluid, with the brain and nerves floating inside,” said Dr. Graffeo. “That leather bag will occasionally make these tumors called meningiomas, which are benign, but which can grow quite large and cause symptoms by pressing on the brain. When that happens, as was the case with Jeff, surgery is almost always the front-line treatment, and our goal is to remove as much of the tumor as possible —ideally the entire mass — without excessively manipulating the adjacent brain.”

Dr. Graffeo plans operations like Jeff’s with that goal, typically opening a small and strategically positioned window in the skull over the epicenter of the mass. Once there is access, the neurosurgery team works by coring the tumor from the inside out, limiting exposure of the brain. When the mass has been whittled down to a thin rind, that capsule is folded into the resection cavity, allowing it to be delicately dissected free from the brain and removed in a piecemeal fashion. This strategy frequently allows the entire tumor to be removed, while keeping risk to the patient at a minimum.

Jeff’s operation was extensive — it took the team almost nine hours — but it was very successful, achieving a complete removal of the entire tumor. For most patients, this is tantamount to a cure, as the risk of recurrence is very low following a total resection.

Dr. Graffeo explained that most patients like Jeff who have a meningioma likely developed the disease due to bad luck alone — a few risk factors have been identified, but those typically apply only to very specific groups of patients, such as individuals with very rare familial tumor syndromes, or patients who required radiation treatment in childhood for an unrelated diagnosis.

Jeff went home two days after the surgery and despite having some minor setbacks in his early recovery, he is now thriving, and back to his bright and energetic self.

Neurosurgical Multidisciplinary Team for Treatment of Meningioma and Brain Tumors

OU Health is the only center in the state that has a truly comprehensive multidisciplinary brain tumor program.

“We have world class expertise with multiple surgeons who have trained at leading institutions ranging from Mayo Clinic to Harvard, Cleveland Clinic, UCSF, and the Barrow Neurological Institute, among others” said Dr. Graffeo. “We have very deep expertise treating these types of tumors, and our team is built of closely collaborating subspecialists who have tremendous experience with the full range of modern tools and techniques. No two tumors are the same in terms of the type, size, or symptoms it produces, and the OU Health team treats every patient as an individual, with particular attention to their values and treatment goals. We offer higher quality and broader diversity in terms of treatment options and individualization of our care plans — and that’s the cornerstone of what we are doing. Bringing world-class, personalized neurosurgical care to the people of Oklahoma.”

Learn more about our neurosurgery services and treatment, request an appointment or get a second opinion, or find out more about the neurosurgical team at OU Health by calling (405) 271-4912.