The Reality

Nearly 12 years ago I got a migrane headache the cause of which turned out to be a brain tumor the size of "an oversized tennis ball". This was a slow-growing tumor with the daunting name of "Hemangiopericytoma", which is a disease of the blood vessels. The diagnosis was immediate surgery and the prognosis was bad. My family and friends were called into the little Los Alamitos hospital and the waiting room was filled with prayers during the 6 hour surgery. The surgery was a miraculous success and I fully recovered with no side effects!

As is the nature of this type of tumor, 4 years later there was a regrowth which caused my right eye to go blurry, which triggered this discovery. As the tumor was much smaller it was also successfully removed.

Since that time (2004) my tumor regrowths were monitored and remediated through MRIs and some very advanced technologies such as TOMO Therapy and Gamma Knife. Both procedures use a pinpointed stream of radiation to blast the tumor and it melts away. This has been my life for the last several years, and it has just been a minor inconvenience to deal with over the years.

This has now changed.

The last few MRIs and latest CT scans showed an agressive occurrence of tumors in my brain, spine, and now in my ribs, shoulder, and hips. The radiation doctors have now punted me over to the Oncologist. The explanation is like this: my tumors can no longer be treated like pulling weeds one at a time from the lawn - they are growing in too fast and too many. What they need to do now is apply weed poisoning over the whole lawn to kill the weeds to save the lawn. This weed poisoning is called Chemo Therapy.  

The second part of the bad news is that according to my Oncologist, my condition is incurable. From the doctor's experience, these tumors will initially respond to chemo, but they will return, sometimes more agressively than before. 

My chemo treatment will look like this:
- There will be a 3-week cycle. Week one consists of 4 full days of laying in a hospital bed being administered the chemo.
- I get to go home in the evening but take along a bag of chemo that continues to be administered overnight.
- I then return to the hostpital in the morning.O
- On the fifth day, I go in for a disconnect from the IV.
- Week 2 and 3 are basically going back in a couple times for monitoring. 

So the bottom line is that my disease is now a reality and will be soon made very public in that I will lose my hair, my work will be affected as I will have to miss at least a week out of every month for 5 months, and I will have nausea, diarreah, and constipation. Sign me up!

This will be a very interesting journey for me, my family, and my friends as I try to sort out the whys and hows of my condition, deal with an end of life possibly shorter than I had anticipated, and the fear of loss of employment, insurance, and income. My faith and stamina will be tested, as well as the strength of my wife and 3 daughters.