More than four weeks after his surgery, the reality alum says recovery “comes with real ups and downs”
Credit: Joe Amabile/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Joe Amabile shared his struggles with overstimulation, anxiety, and socializing since undergoing brain tumor surgery in August
- The tumor was removed successfully, but Amabile says he is still trying to heal
- He emphasized the importance of sleep in his recovery and admitted to overdoing things
Joe Amabile is sharing his struggles since undergoing brain surgery in August.
“It’s been four and a half weeks since my surgery. I wanted to make this video mainly because, like, overall, I’m doing wonderful, but, like, has it all been great? Like, no, there are things I struggle with,” the Bachelor alum, 40, said in a video shared to Instagram on Sept. 6, following surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumor known as a low-grade astrocytoma.
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The first challenge, he shared, is overstimulation.
“If I’m scrolling too much on social media,” Amabile, known as “Grocery Store Joe,” said. “I have a big TV in this room — if I watch it for too long, like, I do get a little lightheaded. I’ll have to go in my bedroom, turn the lights off.”
Another struggle, he said, is socializing, which he said he has been “hesitant to do.” While he is trying to slowly get back into it, “I’ve been on the more cautious side,” he explains.
“Three, anxiety is something I’ve been dealing with my whole life, but it’s definitely ramped up now. Anytime I read anything about, like, the certain tumor that I have, my hands sweat, I get anxious. I feel 100% at times,” he said.
Amabile also admitted to taking on too much at times. “I do tend to overdo it. I’m an over-doer.”
He added, “I’m struggling making this video, is what I’m doing.”
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The final thing, he added, was getting through the day without enough sleep. “I’m someone that’s always been able to operate off of very little sleep. I can’t do that anymore, at least, at least not right now,” he said. “My sleep is really important.”
The tumor was discovered after Amabile underwent a full-body MRI scan with Prenuvo. While his wife, Serena Pitt, previously shared that doctors “were able to remove the entire tumor and Joe is recovering very well,” Amabile said in his update, “This is going to be with me the rest of my life.”
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