By Greg Ellison

(March 18, 2021) Following life-saving surgery two weeks at Johns Hopkins Hospital to excise a large internal mass, Ocean Pines resident Dave Baker returned home on March 9 to begin a weeks’-long recovery.

Speaking last Wednesday, Baker said surgeons at Hopkins removed an internal mass identified as pheochromocytoma, a rare tumor that emanates from the adrenal gland and effects on average two out of one million people.

“I got back yesterday,” he said. “It was a long trip back.”

Baker was initially diagnosed in mid-January when doctors at Atlantic General Hospital located an internal mass that was identified as pheochromocytoma.

Baker said last week doctors discovered the mass had grown larger than previously thought once the internal surgery got underway.

“It had gotten bigger so they had to do a little more, but it’s real unclear to me what happened,” he said. “I’m still processing everything.”

Going into the procedure, Baker had been cautioned that blood pressure fluctuations are a principal challenge.

“I know they had trouble keeping my blood pressure where it needed to be,” he said. “That was going to be the big obstacle but they handled it.”

Pheochromocytoma patients are at risk of excessive hormones being released from flair-ups. Blood sugar spikes are also common with the condition.

Upon awakening at the conclusion of the surgery, Baker described being in a dreamlike state.

“When you come out of that, it’s just hard to tell what you actually remember,” he said. “There’s such a haze.”

After spending a handful of days recovering in the hospital, Baker still faces weeks of recovery at home.

“I’m just so sore right now it’s hard to even do anything,” he said. “They’re saying four to six weeks before I can start to feel a little bit of normal again.”

Although most hospitals lack experience with the rare-disease procedure, Hopkins’ surgeons perform one or two pheochromocytoma removals annually, Baker said.

“They were all very nice and confident, which is good because you want your doctors to be confident,” he said.

To assist with travel expenses and unanticipated costs, a gofundme page has been set up that as of Wednesday was at $1,739 toward an overall goal of $6,000.

To learn more visit gofundme.com and search for Dave Baker or visit the link below.

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