Grey Matter 101- A cancer Primer

    

  Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'....
                                               Dusty Springfield

    Since this is fairly new to me, I thought I'd take a few minutes to advise anyone recently diagnosed or just mildly curious about Glioblastoma Multiforme. I am by no means , an expert on having brain cancer, just someone who is experiencing the journey first hand and will share what I know because this isn't something "well known about"! The way rock star doctor # 2 explained it to me was very articulate and very understandable. "You have a tumor in your right temporal lobe. Now we are going to do our best to take it out, but with this type of tumor, it's like grains of sand on a marble counter-top, There's no way to guarantee we can get it all."

     Glioblastoma Multiforme is a fairly rare cancer growth somewhere in your head . GBM accounts for about 15 percent of all brain tumors and primarily occurs in adults between the ages of 45 and 70. Its a very aggressive cancer and life expectancy rates, none too pretty. You can start to see the problems cropping up here, invasive, aggressive growth, in a very tight skull area,means thought processes can be disturbed! Depending on where in your head your little Dragon sets up shop and how voracious it is...well let's don't go there. In my case, my choice was to hit it with all I could.

    After 3 weeks of allowing my brain to heal after tumor removal, Rock star doctors 1&2 ( did I tell you I am a lucky guy?) suggested we hit this from 3 ways. First, a clinical trial. If you are diagnosed with GBM stage 3 ,or better yet stage 4 (I am an American!!!) and you can get into a clinical trial do it. Although somewhat risky, these are the trials that will find the cures or at least elongations for other GBM sufferers. The Temedor regimen ( Chemotherapy drug )I am taking was once a clinical trial and is now shrinking tumors and allowing people to survive 3-6 years. I tell Mary,"I'll be a lab rat for a shot at 3-6 more years! Just let me know if I start growing a tail" The third punch is radiation treatments. Remember all those years of worrying about Xrays at the Dentist or the Doctors office? You never have to concern yourself again! I just go in to a room where someone who is much smarter than me, and hopefully a much more accurate shot, shoot's "Frikkin laser beams" into my head! This is to radiate any growth of said Dragon! I have been staring in the mirror for a week trying my damnedest to get my best Jack Nicholson post Mac Murphy look so I can freak out some of my friends who are driving me! It's the little things i tell ya!

    This regimen will go on for a total of about 45 days. So far, not bad. They tell me some people wear out as treatments go on, but I am blessed to be Clydesdale strong in my resilience so far and I will push as hard as it takes to stay that way. I have so many great friends and caregivers that rides to the hospital are not a problem. Thank you all again! Yet, another sign of the genuine Love and Goodness of the people I am blessed with. I have cried more out of thanks and appreciation than I have over the diagnosis! Great people rock!

    After the Clinical trial, the Chemotherapy, and the Radiation, we wait. We wait 2 months again for recovery ( that's a lot of toxic shit going down) and then we MRI. The diagnosis all GBM patients want is simple, no change. No change means we beat back the Dragon, at least for a while and my life goes on. I get to go back to work, play with my grandbabies, and think about important stuff like why is a cup of coffee and a bagel $6:00  at Starbucks?

    If you have been recently diagnosed, I am so sorry. It's a serious heavy load and all I can say is realize how precious every day is! You did nothing to "deserve" this, It's like that cousin you have who tans out every year while you burn and peel, some people are just lucky. But fellow cancer patients, you can face it with a smile and bravery....and lot's of deep breaths.

"Celebrate, celebrate we will... cuz life is short but sweet for certain"
                                                             Dave Matthews