Dad, 41, Felt an ‘Electrical Burst’ Every Time He Sneezed, then Learned the Strange Symptom Was Sign of ‘Aggressive’ Tumor

The father of three were considered a “super healthy” individual until he was hospitalized with an aggressive tumor on the spine.

Steve Loutzenhiser – a high school teacher from St. Peters, Missouri – struggled with a painful back pain in the fall of 2024.

“I felt like he was stabbing me in the back at night when I was trying to sleep,” said the 41-year-old Today. “Incredibly sharp pain in the right between my blades in one particular place.”

When the pain lasted for several weeks, Loutzenhiser’s chiropractor invited him to get MRI, which led to a shocking diagnosis.

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Steve Loutzenhiser.

Siteman Center for Cancer

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In December 2024, Loutzenhiser met with Dr. Camil Molin, a neurosurgeon of the University of Washington at the Siteman Cancer Center to review his scan. He learned that his MRI showed an ependime, a “local aggressive” benign tumor on the spinal cord near the door base.

“They are completely random,” Molina said the socket. “He is young, healthy, athletic, conscientious. He never had a really big health problem in his life, thinking that [he’s] Doing everything it should. And then all of a sudden, something like this really completely interferes with life in a somewhat disastrous way. ”

Symptoms include back pain, balance problems, cloudy vision, dizziness, headache, muscle weakness, numbness in the arms and legs, seizures and more.

In addition to Loutzenhiser’s back pain that landed him in the hospital, she also unknowingly suffered from Lhermitte’s sign, the symptoms characterized by an electric shock that occurs on the flexion of the neck and radiates down the spine and through the arms and legs, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Steve Loutzenhiser with his wife and children at the hospital.

Siteman Center for Cancer

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Loutzenhiser recalled that whenever he sneezed, he would remove the “electric bang” from the elbows and knees. He also dealt with stiffness around the torso side. After the diagnosis, Loutzenhiser learned that if his tumor continued to grow, lose his feeling and balance, which could progress to the loss of strength, coordination and incontinence of the urine.

“There were a lot of tears, a lot:” What does that mean? “” His wife Jackie, 41, said about her diagnosis. “I just thought, I don’t know how we do it without him. This family does not work without him in her.”

“Never in a million years, none of us thought it could be a tumor,” Loutzenhiser added. “It was a lot of very dark thoughts.”

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Steve Loutzenhiser.

Siteman Center for Cancer

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Molina gave Loutzenhiser two movement options forward: follow the tumor and his symptoms or remove it immediately by risky surgery. “I don’t think I could endure mentally knowing it was there,” he admitted.

Loutzenhiser had surgery on January 7th, and Molina said the procedure was “almost like a bomb rejection in small, small pieces.”

“If you push it too much, they are permanently paralyzed. But if you don’t push it enough, leave a large part of the tumor there,” Molina added, noting that he was able to successfully remove the tumor.

After such a severe surgery, it took a Loutzenhiser for about a month to indulge himself. He is now on the path of recovery, thanks to all the medical staff who helped him along the way.

“It was a decade worth of experience in four months,” he told the socket.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education