Courage

Hi, my name is Peter Chasse. I live in Waterbury, Connecticut. I am writing to tell all of you about my experiences while I was a patient at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

I was 17 years old when I found that I had a developmental tumor that I was born with. Though I had been tested since infancy, nothing really showed up until I was 17 years old. I had a lot of anger then, and I had a problem with depression. One day I had a seizure, and that’s when I got really scared about was happening to me. Now I know the cause of that negative behavior was because I had a tumor in my right temporal lobe region of my brain.

I learned this through the help of a good epileptic neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. Dennis Spencer MD! Dr. Spencer was one of the best doctors that I ever had! He showed me through his warm personality that I could get through all of this with his help! My courage started the day of my neurosurgery! I do remember that day very well! It was 7-23-96! Throughout my whole junior year at my high school I was really scared about what was going on up in my brain. I was so scared that all I did was cry and cry. But because of Dr. Spencer's help and reassurance that everything would come out fine, I started to believe in him. I found my courage by talking to Dr. Spencer, Jesus Christ and my old pastor. I learned all that I needed was to be a strong person by not giving up faith.

In conclusion, I did make it out of the hospital very well, and I thank the Lord for having Dr. Dennis Spencer in my life. The tumor was just a congenital mass of cells that was in my right temporal lobe.

Thank you to each one of you in the neurosurgery department. I Love You ALL!

Peter Chasse
Waterbury, Conn.