Reality television personality Joe Amabile has explained his decision to undergo brain surgery after medical imaging revealed a lesion doctors believe may be an early-stage tumor.
The 40-year-old Bachelor in Paradise alum discussed the medical situation Thursday on the "Not Married to This" podcast, which he co-hosts with his wife, Serena Pitt. Amabile described the approximately blueberry-sized growth and outlined why he elected to have it surgically removed rather than monitored over time.
"I mean, there's something in my brain. Like there's no other way around it. Like there's something there and that's… you don't want anything in your brain," Amabile told Us Weekly.
The television personality revealed that physicians presented him with two options: monitoring the lesion through regular imaging or proceeding with surgical removal. Medical professionals informed him that a definitive diagnosis would only be possible through tissue analysis, which requires either a biopsy or complete excision.
"So, basically, it was, we'll never know what this is by just monitoring it. We will only know by taking it out or or biopsying it," Amabile explained to Us Weekly. "And from my understanding, they only do biopsies in the brain if removing it is very dangerous. But where mine is located, it seems like it's a less dangerous scale to remove it. I mean, the surgery is very dangerous."
The procedure Amabile will undergo is a craniotomy, a surgical operation that involves temporarily removing part of the skull to access the brain. He acknowledged the gravity of the operation while expressing his reasoning for choosing immediate action.
"I was pretty much like, okay to me, monitoring something that we don't know what it is… it could potentially get worse very fast. I was kind of like, 'I'm going to do the surgery,'" he told Us Weekly.
Pitt provided additional context regarding the medical consultations that informed their decision. The couple sought opinions from multiple specialists before committing to the surgical approach.
"We did ask the neuro-oncologist and neurosurgeon separately, 'If this was you, if you had this scan in your brain, what would you do?' And they both without hesitation said, 'I would take this out,'" Pitt told Us Weekly. "They said the likelihood that this is something even though it's slow growing, it's going to grow into something aggressive or problematic is very high."
Amabile first disclosed his health situation to followers on Instagram on Monday, July 13, indicating that surgery would occur within two weeks. He expressed optimism about the outcome while acknowledging the uncertainty of the diagnosis.
"Hopefully they get 100% of it or at least 99.4," Amabile told Us Weekly regarding his expectations for the surgical results.
In his social media announcement, Amabile credited Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he will receive treatment. The facility is recognized nationally for its specialized cancer care and neurosurgical expertise.
"This past month has been a lot of ups and downs to say the least. After multiple scans and MRIs I have what looks to be an early stage brain tumor. In two weeks I'll be undergoing a craniotomy to have it removed — yeah brain surgery — @memorialsloankettering," Amabile wrote. "I'm doing my best to stay positive during this time and am lucky to have a lot of support from family and friends."
The discovery came as an unexpected development for Amabile, who described the experience as surreal. Medical imaging technology allowed physicians to detect the abnormality before it produced noticeable symptoms, enabling early intervention.
"I definitely wasn't expecting this," Amabile told Us Weekly. "I think it's one of those things where you're like, 'Oh, something like this will never happen to me.' And here I am."
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Ava Hart
Ava Hart is a pop culture junkie and loves to share what's happening in Hollywood and what trends are taking the world by storm.
