What having brain surgery meant for my business – Pt 1

Hi there accounting fans!

It’s been a while since I wrote anything non-accounting (or really, just anything) for this blog. Truth is, all throughout of 2025, I was struggling with fatigue, chronic pain and carpal tunnel syndrome. So yeah, trying to do the bare minimum to keep the business running was really all I had the energy for.

As a result, the blog fell by the wayside and we didn’t do much content at all.

At first I thought I was just being lazy. That I had lost interest in writing content. Then other symptoms started appearing, like a loss in libido, hip pain and an inability to get up in the morning. Eventually my wife pushed me to see the doctor. Like most ‘healthy, strong’ men, I put it off and just pushed through all our remaining work for the year 2025. It wasn’t until January 2026 did I see the doctor.

I was diagnosed with low testosterone. Which was a shocker. But it explained my low libido and general disinterest in intimate relations. We then made a family trip to Malaysia. It wasn’t until I got back in February that we did follow up tests. These set of tests showed that I had dangerously low levels of cortisol.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that helps your body respond to stressors. Most of us don’t even realise its there. We just take it for granted. It kicks in when your body is injured, helping you manage pain. It also kicks in when you are experiencing mental stress, helping you focus and not feel overwhelmed by everything.

The tumor diagnosis

I was told by the specialists from the Endocrinology clinic that my low cortisol was caused by a tumor sitting on my pituitary gland. We did an MRI to confirm that was the case. Sure enough, there it was, right where the specialists said it would be. Measuring 2.2 by 2 by 1.9 cm. A tumor on my pituitary gland:

This is what the medical types call a ‘Pituitary Macro Adenoma’ with macro meaning ‘pretty damn big’. Fortunately the doctors told me that this type of tumor is benign (IE non-cancerous). But it didn’t mean that it wasn’t dangerous. Left unchecked, the tumor would invade my brain matter and degrade my vision. Not to mention that it was messing with my hormone levels (which would lead to other complications that would shorten my lifespan!).

And so, plans for surgery were put in place.

Before the surgery

After the diagnosis, I was put on a course of hormone supplements. These hormone supplements were game changers for me. I immediately felt more energetic, my libido came back and I was able to find the strength to exercise. I was also more focused and disciplined at work. However these were steroidal supplements. Which meant that I was in a constantly ‘juiced’ state just to do what normal people can do without steroids. It did also mean that whenever I got mad at my kids, they would call me their angry ‘roided’ up dad.

More seriously, I started to ponder my own mortality and what would happen to my family and the business if I kicked the bucket sooner than expected. The surgery was not risk-free. The surgeon pointed out that there is a 0.25% of death and around 4 to 5% chance of some sort of brain damage.

Armed with the odds, I set about making sure that things were in place, should the worst come to pass. The worst being me dying. Obviously.

Getting everything ready

The first thing I did, with my wife was to set up a will. We had talked about setting up a will for a while now. But the looming spectre of brain surgery motivated us to get it done sooner, rather than later. The will process was a simple one and gave me some peace of mind, before heading into surgery.

The second thing was to train the business team to run the business without me. Fortunately, I’m a big fan of delegation and I have been training the team to run aspects of the business without my constant supervision. I am very proud of our accounting team for being able to perform their functions without me having to breathe down their necks (who wants to do that anyway? – sounds really creepy!).

What I was lacking was someone to look after the administrative functions. Up until now, I had done all administrative functions myself. So I had to get an administrator in to keep that side of the business running for me. At the time, my wife was going through a rough patch in her career (as a casual nurse, she was hit hard by the Government’s public sector cuts) and she stepped in to fill that administrative role.

So I spent the next two weeks making videos and teaching her how to run admin stuff. Things like invoicing, compiling statements, chasing up invoices, onboarding clients and all the other fun stuff that make small businesses run smoothly.

Amidst it all, I did my best to ensure that all the accounting reviews that were outstanding were done. Any client that wanted their stuff done in April had their accounts completed. With everything in place, we got a date for the surgery – April 22 2026. I had done everything that I can to prepare for the worst. The rest was up to God.

Check back for Pt 2 for the learnings after surgery!