Wait, He Filmed His Brain Surgery?
How much of your personal life would you share on YouTube? Believe it or not there are some people who share every day of their lives with complete strangers. Charles and Alli Trippy are two of those people.
Without missing a day for the last 5 ½ years they have posted a video on YouTube about their lives. Their channel is called “Internet Killed Television”. If something bad happens, they talk about it first and decide whether or not they want to put it in their vlog (video blog). After watching the daily vlogs for over 3 years now, I feel as if Charles and Alli have become my friends, a part of my family.
They share the good and the bad with a very large group called “The CTFxC”. On October 4, 2009 the CTFxC watched as Charles proposed to Alli in Spain. As of February 2, 2014 the proposal video has 4,279,150 views. Charles and Alli were married on November 20, 2011 and everyone was able to share their special day. From getting married to announcing Charles’ new job as the bassist for a band called We The Kings, The Trippys share almost all aspects of their life.
In February of 2012, Charles was on tour with We The Kings and he was rushed to the hospital. This was the start of a long journey for Charles. In Boise Idaho on February 23rd Charles had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. The next day, he told the CTFxC that he had a tumor and that was the reason he had a seizure.
Charles and Alli decided to tell the CTFxC about all of this because the CTFxC is one of their biggest supporters next to their families. The Trippys couldn’t express how much their follwers meant to them in almost every video.
To make followers and possibly themselves comfortable with the situation, they called Charles’ brain tumor a few different things. The name that stuck the most was “brain slug”. Alli referred to it as “hitch-hiker in his brain” once. On February 27,2012 the video was even called “Alien in my head brain!”
March 6, 2012 Charles had his first surgery in order to remove the tumor. They didn’t take out all of the tumor during that surgery though. The doctors left a tiny piece of the tumor that they didn’t think was harmful. After his surgery, in the videos he made some jokes about having super powers. He would add in effects during the editing process of the vlogs that made things explode. Ten days after his surgery The Trippys found out the tumor was benign (not cancerous).
March 8, 2013 Charles had his first seizure since the surgery, and another one on June 22. While at the hospital in June he claimed that the night before he had a nightmare that he had another seizure. Charles made the joke that he was ‘psychic’. Alli did say that he was getting better at being able to tell when a seizure was coming, that he could feel it and warn the people he was around.
After traveling to Boston and seeing some different doctors, on September 3 Charles and Alli sat down with a camera in hand and told the CTFxC that Charles had to go in for another surgery, this time he was going to be awake for the entire procedure. Except this time they had some exciting news, Charles talked to his doctors and asked if he could film his brain surgery!
September 17th was a big day for Charles. Brain surgery, while being awake. How scary does that sound? In the regular daily vlog, the doctor was able to record for Charles and asked him some questions. The doctor told Charles to say hello to his fans which he sometimes refers to them as “The Internet”. When Charles said hello to Alli, he said everything was good and “The TV remote isn’t in there as we thought”.
Charles’ doctors helped him record the entire procedure, and Charles and Alli decided to make a separate video, aside from the daily vlog that showed more, so a viewer didn’t have to watch if they didn’t want to.
Recovery was a long process for Charles. The resection of the tumor was on the right side of the brain, so he had to go through physical therapy for his left arm, and he had some slow movement on the left side of his face as well. Something that made recovery a little better was when the CTFxC channel hit 1 million subscribers!
A month after The Trippys told the viewers about the surgery, they received results of the tests that were done on the tumor. Alli said:
“He had a grade two Oligodendroglioma before, now he has a grade three Oligodendroglioma, or an Aniplastic Oligodendroglioma, which means it is an, unfortunately malignant brain tumor. Call it what you want, it is classified as a type of brain cancer, but we are not going to use that word in our videos or our house.”
Fortunately, the cancer is a type that doesn’t spread, so they didn’t have to worry about it spreading to other parts of his body. They weren’t sure what to do with the videos, but they did decided to keep vlogging because the comments cheer them up on bad days. They said the only option was to kick cancers butt!
Charles and Alli are still vlogging every day and are on Day 1738. Charles is taking Chemotherapy pills, and has just finished his third round. In March, he is going on his first tour with We The Kings since his surgery.
It is truly amazing that The Trippys film their lives every day and share it with over 1 million people. From getting married to filming his own brain surgery, they show you almost everything. I don’t think I could build up enough courage to share my life with that many people, could you?
Below is the link if you want to watch the bonus video of Charles’ surgery.
Karissa is a Senior majoring in TV/Radio Production. Writing hasn't always been her calling but within the last couple years she has found a passion for...
