Final Week of Treatment: November 4 to November 12

November 12 was my last day of the Low Level Chemo/Radiation treatment…yeah!!! We took pictures with both the radiation technicians and Dr Einstein and his nurse Kathy. Dr Einstein indicated that I had done extremely well through this phase of treatment.

I reviewed with him the visualization points I plan to use during the upcoming 6-week resting period that will be followed by higher level chemotherapy beginning in early January. What we came up with was prayer, meditation and visualization to:

1. Soothe and heal the normal brain cells that may have been inflamed or damaged by the radiation

2. Prevent any further radiation necrosis (death of healthy brain cells)

3.Encourage cancer cells to recognize that their DNA is now damaged and die

4.Recall the radiation and chemotherapy as healing energy

5.Support the white blood cells in continuing to surround and remove any remaining pieces of the tumor

6. Strengthen all aspects of my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing in preparation for the high-dose chemotherapy in January

Dr. Einstein had been at a medical conference recently and shared with us that they now have 4-year survival rate data for the new combination chemo/radiation protocol I have just completed vs. the previous treatment of radiation alone. He indicated that the 4-year survival rate has been shown to increase from 3% to 15%. He assured me that, as far he was concerned, I was clearly in the 15% group that would live at least 4 years or more.

An MRI scan will be done in early December and there will be check-up visits with each of the 3 doctors (neurosurgeon, oncologist, and radiologist).

Other interesting events of this week are as follows:

1. Once again had lunch with my son. Getting together with him has been wonderful for me.
2. Traveled to Michigan for an uplifting, inspirational meeting of Bahá’ís from Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan on Saturday. Many Cleveland folks chose to make it a long same-day drive. In order to not overtax my energy, we chose to drive up Friday afternoon, have dinner with our friends, Cheryl and Wade Schuette, with whom we celebrated my 56th birthday, stay overnight, and return home mid-afternoon on Saturday, instead of staying for the whole day. During the meeting, I was inspired to develop a call/response song and taught it to some of the other people. The “call” part is “Learning in action”. The “response” part is “The more we do, the more we learn.” “Learning in action” is part of the culture of the Baha’i community, and Susanne and I also adopted it as the slogan for the Marriage Transformation Project.
3. I had been interviewed by a reporter from the Bahá’í National Center for a story to go on their website. It was posted.
4. During my meditation time on Sunday, I was inspired with a new image of how I’m seeing the application of the Three Tools of Healing (Medical Treatment, Prayer, Joy & Laughter) to my journey.
1. The image is of a bird in flight.
2. The body of the bird is the Medical Treatment.
3. One wing is prayer, meditation, and visualization.
4. The other wing is nutrition, supplements, and exercise.
5. Joy & laughter creates an uplift of wind under the wings.

It’s raising my spirits each time I envision this image!