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A Regina musician is recovering in an American hospital after emergency brain surgery.
Jack Semple started having back pain six months ago, and when his symptoms got worse he went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where doctors discovered a brain tumour.
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His wife, Tara Semple, said it was a very emotional experience, but Jack is doing well after the 12-hour operation, which saw the non-cancerous tumour successfully removed.
She joined the The Greg Morgan Morning Show on 980 CJME to share the details of the scary experience.
Listen to the full interview with Semple, or read the transcript below:
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
GREG MORGAN: How is Jack doing right now? And how are you doing, as his partner, after this roller-coaster of emotions?
TARA SEMPLE: That is exactly the best way to describe it. This has been an absolute roller-coaster of emotions. Unbelievable. Having brain surgery, and within an hour the surgery being done – or maybe it was two hours – he was talking. He was good. Unbelievable what can happen in science nowadays.
Where are you now? Where is Jack, and where was the surgery?
SEMPLE: So we ended up coming to the Mayo Clinic. I’ll give you a bit of history of what happened. About six months ago, Jack started having back pain. His foot started dragging in a bit of a weird way, kind of balance issues, and then it really got his attention when it started happening on the arm on the same side. But then, by Christmastime when we did the casino gig, Jack had to sit down for the first time ever at a gig because his balance was really unsteady, and when he went to step on a pedal he could potentially fall over. When he started researching the possibilities of the back, which is what he thought it was, he realized that if he didn’t act really fast it could be permanent. So with that kind of urgency, we packed him up, he went to the Mayo Clinic, and he spent a week having all sorts of tests. By the end of the first week they said “It’s not your back.” So what would it be? And they said “It has to be neurological,” so then you go down the rabbit hole of “Is it Parkinson’s? ALS?” and all that. You look at all the possibilities, and they’re all degenerative. He was grieving. “What if I can’t play my guitar?” It was a really upsetting look at all these different things, and after they did an MRI of his brain, they found a tumour, and it was a large tumour. Interestingly enough, his response was “Yes! It’s a tumour!” because a tumour is operable, and then you have the potential of getting mobility back in your arm and leg. So out of all of those choices, brain surgery seemed like a good choice.
Did the surgery take place almost immediately? How long did the surgery last?
SEMPLE: We found out, I think, on Thursday. We had a weekend to really process it. So you meet with a doctor and they basically tell you you could die. You have to look death in the eye and realize, “OK, I might not make it through the surgery.” So you have to grieve those aspects. And if he comes out, he might not be able to use that arm and leg. So he had to grieve. “How would my life look if I’m no longer Jack the guitar player?” There has been lots of laughing, lots of crying, lots of processing before he went in for his surgery. The best part was when the surgeon came out of the surgery, and he looked like a gleeful child and he said “The surgery went perfectly. They got all of the tumour. It is not a cancerous tumour.” He will have temporary paralysis in the arm and leg, but it should come back, because they were so careful. It was almost a 12-hour surgery, and the amazing thing is even the doctor, after the surgery, he asked Jack “Are you a praying man?” Because he said, “There were miracles that happened in your surgery.” Jack is so grateful. So many people have had positive thoughts for him, and so many people were absolutely praying and holding him in their thoughts as this was happening.
Has the experience changed the way you both look at time, health, and what truly matters?
SEMPLE: Everything. Jack cannot wait. We’ve talked about it. I think he will take like a six-month period where he just lies low and gets totally back on his feet. Once he is through that, he cannot wait. His perspective is different. His songs will be different. It’s absolutely a new lease on life when you have to face your own mortality.
When do you expect to return to Regina?
SEMPLE: It’s still up in the air. Surprisingly, he has full use of his hand and arm, so we’re getting him a guitar today. First request, because he wants to make sure everything works the way he thinks it’s gonna work. Unfortunately, his leg does not have mobility from his knee down. They feel it will be temporary, so he needs to do rehab.
