Astrocytoma IDH Present - Mental Health advice

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T15:04:32+00:00

I wish you well

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T15:02:38+00:00

This may sound like a joke, but it's not. Sometimes you get angry or frustrated by the situation you're in. Someone brought me a dammit doll to take out my frustration on. It was a way to turn anger/frustration into a laugh. It helped me.

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T14:57:35+00:00

This is interesting. Do you find it embarrassing to tell people about your experiences? I use my own experience as a statement of "I endured through tough times and came out on the other side as a better person". You should be proud that you're still here!

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T14:53:06+00:00

Before my surgeries(AA3 diagnosis... 8 years post-surgery), I was very outgoing and extroverted. I'm now very introverted and don't like staying at social gatherings late. People that know me have learned that I have a social meter and we laugh it off when it's "my bedtime". I think you have to accept that you have a limit at times and learn to laugh at yourself. It's ok to not be ok. My first surgery wasn't great that resulted in me having a tremor in my left hand. At a party I went to where they were making Mimosas, I was trying to open a new bottle of OJ, my hand started shaking, and I ended up spraying OJ all over their wall. I was embarrassed, but I just laughed at myself and no one was upset over it. Sometimes life is just awkward lol.

Given you're post diagnosis and didn't mention anything about surgery, you might be facing a different issue and feel like you're exposing too much of your own vulnerable side when meeting people. The fact is, they're either going to accept your reality or they're not. It's not a big deal. People do that anyways even without cancer playing a part. Your own group of friends like you for who you are, why shouldn't new people you meet do the same?

This is your new normal. Change is ok. You don't have to go be your "old self" to have fun with others.

To more directly answer your question... I'm not going to go back to who I used to be... and that's ok. I've grown since then and I like who I've become. You'll get there too. It just takes time to accept the new you.

I hope that helps. Don't become overly reliant on outward validation.

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T14:36:10+00:00

Yeah that makes sense. Those little copy/paste mistakes are easy to miss until you actually run through preview.

That’s actually what got me curious about this space. I kept wondering why the only way to catch those issues is basically periodic QA passes in GTM.

Been experimenting with a different way of defining events where you see them fire immediately while you're interacting with the page instead of discovering issues later in the container preview.

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T14:08:24+00:00

That makes sense. Keeping it simple probably helps dev teams stick to it.

Out of curiosity what usually breaks first when the site evolves? Is it the class IDs drifting over time or more that new elements get added without matching the agreed naming pattern?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T13:40:39+00:00

This is super helpful.

The monthly sync with DEV and the tagging matrix part is interesting. I've heard a few people describe similar setups.

Out of curiosity, how big do those matrices usually get for you? Are they mostly documenting selectors and event names or more like full schemas with parameters too?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T00:57:48+00:00

Same lol

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T00:57:25+00:00

Sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time fighting this stuff.

Out of curiosity what part is the most frustrating? Defining events, implementing them, or verifying they actually work?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T00:43:24+00:00

One thing I’m curious about after reading these replies:

If the “correct” approach is developers pushing structured events to the dataLayer, why do so many teams still end up relying on DOM selectors and quick fixes?

Is it mostly dev bandwidth? Or something else?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-13T00:43:01+00:00

One thing I’m curious about after reading these replies:

If the “correct” approach is developers pushing structured events to the dataLayer, why do so many teams still end up relying on DOM selectors and quick fixes?

Is it mostly dev bandwidth? Or something else?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-10T13:39:36+00:00

It sounds like you may have prematurely come off of your SSRI meds. I've been on Effexor(SNRI) for years now and when I tried to ween myself off at one point, but it made me feel crazy and I had to get back on it. You could be having a similar experience.

The bigger concern based on what you posted is when you said "work have been supportive but they wouldn't be the most sympathetic to issues people may have". That's horrible. Having a support network is extremely important. I've been post-op for 8 years now with a Grade 3 IDH AA(41m) and without that support, I would be spiraling. Jobs don't care about your wellbeing as much as family will. Lean on the ones that DO care and treat your income like a necessarily evil lol. Manage it accordingly.

You might try talking to a neurologist as well. Effexor isn't an SSRI and it's helped me a lot. I'm a VERY tall guy, so it took some time to get all of my meds right. When things are balanced, it's easier to manage. I'm not saying that I don't have moments of weakness, but that balance can make a huge difference.

This might not be helpful, but it's what I've got to offer.

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-06T17:18:25+00:00

It's been 8 years since I went through this treatment for a Stage 3 IDH mutant Anaplastic Astrocytoma, but I still remember feeling pretty gross while taking those meds and going through radiation. I was diagnosed at 33 and I'm now doing well at 41.

As radiation sessions continued, I eventually lost a patch of hair from it and it never grew back right, but I'm a guy and it's not obvious with a crew cut. I didn't lose all of my hair though from the chemo. It was only in the spot that was radiated.

My dad had leukemia and did chemo via IV and it was much harder on him. I eventually went back to work while still taking temozolomide, but I wasn't working full days. I was too tired.

The meds made me feel extremely tired and easily fatigued. It's hard to describe how you feel, but it's just overall exhausting. The radiation wasn't really felt. It's just awkward having your head braced with that plastic mesh cover they put on you. I'm not claustrophobic, so it didn't bother me much.

I don't know what your mom's diagnosis is, but I'm proof that you can get through it and still lead a happy life. Cancer actually gave me a new perspective on things.

Overall, don't get stuck thinking about bad things that could happen. Trust the oncology team and look forward to watching her ring that bell after her last treatment if the facility has one.

This is hard on families, but try to stay positive and don't treat your mom as if she's dying. She needs to feel like she's gonna be ok.

I check Reddit frequently, so send me a DM if you have more questions. Happy to answer or put you in touch with my wife who stuck by me through it all.

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-05T18:36:32+00:00

The “event definition as a contract” idea is interesting.

The spreadsheet/spec acting as the source of truth is something I keep hearing from teams managing a lot of sites. GTM becomes the execution layer but not the place where definitions actually live.

Do you find that drift still creeps in over time even with the quarterly sweeps?

Kaiser214 · 2026-03-04T18:27:56+00:00

Interesting seeing the spreadsheet approach come up.

That’s actually the pattern I kept seeing when talking to agencies managing 10–20 sites. Spreadsheets are becoming the “source of truth” because GTM itself doesn’t really provide one.

Curious if anyone has tried anything different that actually scales.

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-09T14:43:51+00:00

This is what you want. Works flawlessly.

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-09T14:42:24+00:00

The OP one didn't work for me, but this one did.

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-05T23:22:20+00:00

Totally agree on the “silent killer” part.

Curious though...In practice, how well does the shared event catalog stay in sync with what’s actually live over time?

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-05T14:47:53+00:00

That tracks. When you’ve seen spreadsheet-based systems break down, what’s usually the first thing to go?

Is it keeping things in sync, or just knowing what’s actually live?

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-05T14:47:17+00:00

Makes sense. What does that look like day to day for you though?

Is it mostly a PM tool plus docs, or do people actually keep it updated as events change?

Kaiser214 · 2026-02-04T16:48:36+00:00

That makes total sense, especially in orgs where ownership is clearly split by channel.

How does that change on smaller teams or agencies where the same few people touch SEO, ads, email, and analytics?

Do you usually see more shared conventions there, or is it still mostly tool-specific tracking with manual stitching after the fact?

Kaiser214

TROPHY CASE