Why am I writing this blog?

Euclid (Cleveland), Ohio, United States
Here I share the amazing spiritual journey I began on July 19, 2007. I received the diagnosis of a golf-ball-sized tumor on top of the left parietal lobe (motor functions) of my brain. I had severe symptoms all up and down the right side of my body and had received an MRI scan of my brain. In August 2007, I learned that my diagnosis was a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). This is a common form of fast-growing brain cancer with a challenging prognosis. That's the external story about that moment in time. In the spiritual world I found (actually more like it found me) what I came to call the Fact-Based Spirit-Guided Path, and I began an amazing journey. After October of 2008, I lost the use of my right arm, and in early 2009, my cognitive abilities were struggling, and treatment options ended. My wife, Susanne, then began doing most of the blog postings, with my review and input whenever possible. I continued to apply the Fact-Based Spirit-Guided Path as the adventure continued. My soul then flew to the Kingdom of God on July 1, 2009. Thanks for your interest in my journey. Craig

Susanne's Perspective

During this entire journey, my wife, Susanne, had an entirely different kind of experience. Initially she added comments to some of my posts describing her experience of the moments I discussed and offerred perspectives on our relationship. In the latter stage of this journey, she is writing the blog, as I am no longer able to do so. I am truly delighted that she is doing so. Susanne and I work together as marriage educators/relationship coaches and she has written many books on preparing for and strengthening marriages so you can count on her comments to be insightful and poignant.

Friday, October 19, 2007

October 11 to 17

I’m approaching the mid-point of the 6 weeks of chemo/radiation and feel that the PLAN (as described above) is working well. My side-effects have been minimal:
  • I am losing some hair on the top and left side of my head where the radiation is focusing. This is an inconvenience due to the frequency of cleaning the bathtub and vanity sink strainers but doesn’t really bother me.
  • I am experiencing some fatigue, so I take somewhat more frequent naps.
  • Over the weekend, I did experience some headaches and a touch of queasiness.
  • The numbness in my right leg increased and extended beyond the foot and lower leg (where I’ve had numbness since being discharged from the hospital and going into rehabilitation for my front shin muscle). I brought this to Dr. Einstein’s attention. He indicated that this was likely due to swelling resulting from the radiation and provided a prescription for a low level dosage (2 mg daily) of steroids to control the swelling. I’ve now taken them for 2 days and the numbness is decreasing.

The radiation therapists continue to indicate that they enjoy the Long Healing Prayer that I play during the sessions. I’ve also started alternating this CD (male voice) with a recording of Christina Quinn (female voice) singing the same prayer. I sometimes now ask the therapist if she wants to hear the male or female voice.

Having various friends drive me to the radiation sessions has been a delightful opportunity to get to know them better and vice versa. I am providing each of them with a copy of the Three Tools of Healing poster, which has elicited some good conversation.

In addition to participating in the International Gliogene study, coordinated at MD Anderson Cancer Clinic at the University of Texas, mentioned in an earlier post we also had an appointment on Octobr 16th with Genetic Cancer Specialists at our hospital. The intent is to get guidance on potential brain tumor risks and general cancer risks for the rest of our close family members. (You may recall that my son, David also has a brain tumor diagnosed in March.) The genetic assessment was a very interesting process. We had prepared a detailed family health/cancer history in spreadsheet formats, for both my son and I. The doctors reviewed them in detail and developed a very intricately annotated family tree drawing. They also asked a zillion other questions and did an overall examination of my skin, eyes, ears, and mouth. Now they will gather key data from the medical records of some family members of interest to them, including David.

During this week we also had the bounty of my mother-in-law, Kay Muttart, visiting us. She drives down from Toronto about twice a year and it is always a delight to see her. Because she’s an avid baseball fan, we watched the beginnings of two of the American League Championship Series exciting games between Cleveland and Boston. We’re delighted to see Cleveland doing so well…it’s a real boost for civic morale. (And, yes to family members who know we don’t watch TV, we got reception and could fairly clearly see the action and nothing bad happened to us from turning the TV on! J) Whenever Mom comes down, she and Susanne go into “shop ‘til you drop” mode and we enjoy eating out together.

I continued to successfully work part-time and have really enjoyed being back among my colleagues. I am planning to work as much as I am able to, around medical appointments, fatigue, etc. It’s making me happy seeing Susanne back to working part-time too.

I had my second to the last Physical Therapy session. They are clearly pleased with how well my right front shin muscle is performing and keep coming up with more and more challenging activities to continue the strengthening and test mobility and stability. One more session next week and that will be it. I plan to get a prescription from the neurosurgeon to return in December or January for certification of my ability to return to driving. You may recall, that the July 17 spasms in my leg were interpreted as seizure…thus no driving, per Ohio State Law, for 6 months seizure-free. I’m now half way to the 6-month date of January 17…YEAH!

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The rest of the story…

For years Craig has been stuck unclogging the sink and bathtub due to my hair falling out (a side effect of thyroid disease). Now he’s the culprit! Craig essentially told his body that it was to avoid or minimize side effects from the chemo and radiation, but if it had to choose something to sacrifice, it was fine for his hair to go. So, of course, now there is hair dropping everywhere! The downside to the hair loss is that it makes him look like he has cancer. This challenges the whole denial thing for others and me. Up until now, he could have a sprained ankle or something that necessitated the cane, and the scar on the top of his head was only visible if he tilted his head.

Cancer doesn’t run in my family, so visibly seeing so much cancer on both sides of Craig’s family as we laid out the history is a little startling. The researchers are fascinated with the information…but we are looking at the people side of it all. Whatever we can do to interrupt the flow and impact of this disease throughout the current and upcoming family members is a good thing.

I love my Mom. It was so good to have her here. And, Craig is right…we shop until we drop. We tried taking him one day, but he dropped too fast! One of the highlights was talking Mom into driving the electric cart with attached basket at Target for the first time. She had a grand time with it and her arthritic knees lasted much longer (which means I bought more, of course!).

I’ve actually mostly adjusted to driving more now with Craig unable to. There are times it’s annoying, but mostly now it’s just part of life. Craig is committed to getting back behind the wheel again in January. I’m encouraging him to be committed but not attached, something that gets him into difficulties. There are still a couple of hurdles to jump over before he’s safely behind the wheel again.

October 19, 2007 at 3:12 PM

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