After experiencing some dizzying symptoms, a 25-year-old Iowa man was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive tumor that was fused deep in his brainstem – one that doctors determined could not be removed surgically.
Michael Jones, a diesel mechanic based in Sioux City, Iowa, had been living what most would consider a healthy, stable life when the first signs of trouble emerged during a trip to Minneapolis in early 2025.
“That’s when I started waking up in the mornings and started randomly feeling very, very nauseous for some reason,” Jones, now 26, told The Patient Stories.
Thinking he had eaten something that didn’t agree with him, he tried to push through, but the symptoms persisted and intensified once he returned home, eventually making it nearly impossible for him to lie flat without triggering powerful dizzy spells.
“As if you’re getting on a roller coaster and you just couldn’t get off,” Jones told Sioux City’s KTIV.
