First Post Radiation and Chemo Cycle News, Continue the Healing, Courage based decisions, Please call and write

Aloha!


I had the end of radiation therapy and end of chemo therapy cycle zero Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy imaging tests on Friday morning. My resident oncologist, Dr. Lieu, at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) interpreted the results. Dr. Lieu looked like a kid in a candy shop. He was grinning ear to ear as he told me, a friend, and my parents his interpretation of the images.


At this stage in treatment for my version of brain cancer, imaging results are usually very ambiguous. The image will generally show that the tumor actually appears to be growing. This is because in my ignorant view, an MRI does not show a very clear difference between dead tumor, live tumor, and swelling. Dr. Lieu compared the image taken Friday to earlier images and the tumor is shrinking. The images indicate that the clinical trial treatment UCSF is using and Willamette Valley Cancer Center’s implementation appears to be effective for me.


I attribute the effectiveness of treatment to a great surgery, skillful radiation treatments, and the chemo therapy of the clinical trial drug and the standard poison. I also believe the wonderful support I have enjoyed from work, my coworkers, my family and friends, my health care workers, and my community has helped measurably to assist in curing cancer.


I do yoga, meditation, other exercise, and only ingest only real food into my body. Other than caffeine and my pre-MRI ride, 10 mg Valium, I am drug free except for my chemo. I think actively managing stress helps in keeping the immune system strong. My chemo is literally a butt kicker but does not seem to affect me other than my digestive track. I have worked with my nurse and appear to have those side effects managed well. All of the body’s systems from the nervous system to the digestive system are important. I am not taking any side effects lightly. The liver is part of the digestive system and my liver has much work to do with these expensive and apparently effective drugs.



I am not giving my liver or other body parts any extra work to do until about Christmas 2008. That Yule Time beer is going to taste great! Come to think of it, I’ll have a fine, Oregon Microbrew for my first alcoholic beverage in over a year this Winter holiday season.



I am continuing up the healing especially since we have some positive news. We are only in Stage 5 of many stages of curing cancer. I consider the lead up to hospitalization the "Prologue". My dear friend Artemis saved my life and got me safely delivered to the Sacred Heart Emergency Room. Stage 1 was a brilliantly, succesful emergency craniotomy which left me a fully functioning human being. Stage 2 was the hospitalization and waiting for the pathology results. Stage 3 was acceptance of a serious disease. Stage 4 was radiation therapy and the first chemo cycle.



We have many more stages until we roll into Paris on the Champs-Elysees . It is going to be a fun, challenging, rewarding ride. I like to ride up mountains so fun, challenging, and rewarding is an accurate description of what I feel. It is good to make decisions from a position of courage. It must be difficult to make decisions from a fearful place.



Please call or write. The newness and excitement of the brain cancer diagnosis is wearing off. I like talking with friends and family. Most of my friends and family enjoy a measurably better command of the English Language than my German Shepherd Dogs. A talk pumps me up and I use the energy to stay strong, light, and effective.



Peace and Love,

Jack Burton