By Greg Ellison

(March 4, 2021) After a lingering medical condition was finally diagnosed correctly as a rare internal tumor, Ocean Pines resident Dave Baker is headed to Baltimore for surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Friday.

Baker said the diagnosis came in mid-January when doctors at Atlantic General Hospital located an internal mass later identified as pheochromocytoma.

“That’s a tumor that comes from the adrenal gland,” he said. “It’s very rare and approximately two out of one million people have it.”

The investigative process took five days with medical professionals initially struggling to find answers from among the typical list of ailments.

“When I was in the hospital, I was fainting,” he said. “They just couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

Eventually a CAT scan was run to obtain an internal overview.

“They saw the mass but then had to figure out what that mass was,” he said.

Pheochromocytoma patients are at risk of excessive hormones being released from flair-ups.

“My blood pressure will go up and then it will go down,” he said. “If I bend over too much, it will kick it up and it will start releasing too many hormones in my system.”

Blood sugar spikes are also common with the condition.

“It sits on top of the kidney and mine’s the size of a softball,” he said. “It’s actually pushing my kidney down [and] it needs to come out.”

Following the unanticipated diagnosis, Baker faces a greater challenge during surgery.

“It’s a dangerous surgery but that’s why I’m going to Hopkins because they have people there that have done it before,” he said.

On average, Hopkins surgeons perform one or two pheochromocytoma surgeries annually, Baker said.

“The good thing is if they can get this out and surgery goes well, I should be done,” he said.

Baker said the positive outlook is tied in no small part to the tumor being identified as non-malignant to this point.

“They don’t think it’s cancerous — and most of the cytomas are — so once it’s out, things come back to normal,” he said.

The medical emergency also made Baker aware of Rare Disease Day, which is held on the last day in February to increase knowledge of more than 7,000 conditions that are known to affect fewer than 200,000 people each.

Overall, however, the number of people affected by one of these 7,000 rare diseases is in the millions.

“It’s awareness not just for people but providers and … to make people aware there are support groups,” he said. “I found out about it because there are support groups for pheochromocytoma.”

Rare Disease Day originated in Europe in 2008 and went global the following year. The initial event took place on Feb. 29, with Feb. 28 marked in non-leap years.

The annual campaign seeks to raise public consciousness about a host of rare diseases, with treatment options yet to be developed in many instances.

Baker stressed the importance of being properly diagnosed to pursue potential treatments for uncommon maladies.

“They think I’ve had this now for a couple years and it’s just gotten worse,” he said. “Nobody’s been able to diagnose it until I was in the hospital the last time.”

Baker’s wife, Robyn, who will accompany him during the stay over in Baltimore.

To assist with travel expenses and unanticipated costs, a gofundme page has been set up with an overall goal of $6,000.

To learn more, visit gofundme.com and search for Dave Baker, or go to

www.gofundme.com/f/2afe9cc8lc?qid=957da46b4efb16b7dd58c1c9c6932a85