Bachelor in Paradise alum Joe Amabile has recalled the harrowing moment he learned he had a malignant brain tumor.
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"We went out that night for -- it was Jesse Solomon's birthday party," Joe recalled.
"We're on our way to his birthday party, and I either get a text or an email that my Prenuvo results are in and they are trying to schedule a call with me for the morning. And I was like, 'Okay, that's weird.'"
Serena agreed it was odd because she had also done a Prenuvo scan and hadn't heard anything. Serena also realized that receiving a phone call in 48 hours was an extremely fast turnaround.
"[Prior to the scan], they said, 'It's probably going to be five to seven business days, probably next week [you hear from us].' And it was, like, 9PM at night," Serena explained.
"It was something where we were like, 'This doesn't feel normal.'"
Joe said the couple stayed out until 3AM that night and he ended up being "so hungover."
"My head was pounding," Joe recalled.
"And I took the call at 9AM and the first thing [the doctor] said was, 'Okay, I want to talk about this right on top of the conversation. We found this. It looks like a brain lesion, it's the size of a small grape, a large blueberry. Where it is located in the brain is somewhat alarming.'"
Joe admitted the news came as a shock, as he recalled, "I was just trying to not throw up."
Joe was then instructed to have a dedicated brain MRI, with and without contrast, since the full-body scan had only spent less than 10 minutes on each body part.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW"I asked, 'Could I have moved abruptly and caused this?' And [the doctor] was like, 'Sure,'" Joe quipped.
"But probably not!" Serena interjected with a laugh.
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Joe admitted he was "kind of freaking out" at this point but still managed to joke around with friends.
"When you hear anything bad at first -- and overall I've never had any issues with health -- [I thought], 'It's probably going to be nothing.' That was my attitude."
Serena said she was determined to "hope for the best" unless they were given a good reason to feel otherwise. The pair therefore decided to move forward and obtain more information.
Last month, Serena shared on the couple's own "Not Married To This" podcast that they were "definitely in a state of shock" after learning about Joe's malignant brain tumor in July.
"It was really scary running around to different hospitals and doctors felt incredibly overwhelming and impossible at the time that we first got your diagnosis," Serena said.
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Joe explained how he was fairly calm for six weeks prior to his surgery -- but that changed once he arrived for pre-op to remove the low-grade astrocytoma.
"That was intense," Joe noted, before joking about how the pre-op room was cold.
"I remember just sitting there for the first time, I was feeling super vulnerable, and I was scared. I was like, 'Oh f-ck!'"
Serena said she was able to speak to Joe right before he went under general anesthesia and could "see the panic" in his eyes.
"That's also when it hit me... You were really scared, fairly so. I was really scared," Serena recalled, adding how saying goodbye to Joe in that moment was "really tough" for her.
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Prior to the surgery, Joe had been warned there was "a slight chance" he'd wake up and be temporarily paralyzed.
However, that didn't turn out to be the case, and Joe said the surgery "went great" and they ultimately "got it all."
Joe also seemed to recover quickly from the surgery. Despite experiencing some speech issues and light sensitivity, Joe said he was discharged from the hospital on August 6 and stopped taking heavy painkillers six days later.
Shortly after having 23 staples removed from his head in late August, Joe revealed on social media that he ran over three miles and hopes to participate in the 2026 New York City marathon this November.
Going forward, Joe said he'll have to continue taking an anti-seizure pill every day "to put the bad cells to sleep."
Despite the challenges that are still ahead of Joe, his doctor, Dr. Alexandra Miller -- the chief of neuro-oncology at the Perlmutter Cancer Center -- recently said on Good Morning America that he has a "good prognosis" and "it was a really good thing and very lucky that he was able to find it early."
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After being a Night 1 boot, Joe returned for Season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise, where he fell in love with Kendall Long.
After Joe and Kendall split, Joe looked for love on Season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise in 2021 and found it with Serena.
Joe and Serena quietly tied the knot in a New York City courthouse in 2022 before having a bigger "magical" wedding for family and friends in South Carolina in September 2023.
Joe also previously competed on Season 27 of Dancing with the Stars and placed fifth with pro Jenna Johnson.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
