Progress: Research and Advances in Care

There is a lot going on in the field of research and study. Some of my friends from around the world are becoming involved in studies and researches being conducted. Books are being released about the options of treatment. The blood-brain barrier, which prevented many existing treatments from being used with brain tumor, is being explored. Natural and artificial treatment methods and forms of tumor control are being evaluated as options. Some have even found ways to use a bodies own DNA to create tumor killing cells.

All the articles and information is, at times, both exciting and overwhelming. With many unknown causes and much still to be learned, it may take all types of treatment to offer a cure for the conditions many live with daily.


Blood-Brain Progress
     Canadian Research

"Doctors at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have noninvasively penetrated the blood-brain barrier to deliver a chemotherapeutic agent directly into a patient’s malignant brain tumor."


Tumor Identification in Surgery
     Glioblastoma Research

"Through OCT mapping, surgeons can differentiate cancerous tissue (red) from healthy tissue (green). "




Harnessing the DNA
     Immuno-therapy
 
' With immune therapies, it turns out you're just engendering the immune system," James Graham Brown Cancer Center's Dr. Jason Chesney said. "You're training it to get activated against the cancer and a lot of the immune therapies we use, we don't have to continue. We can give them for three or four months, and then stop and watch the patient." '


Sound Wave Technology
     Ultrasound and Tumors

"High intensity focused ultrasound or HIFU is a type of cancer treatment. Doctors give the treatment using a machine that gives off high frequency sound waves. These waves deliver a strong beam to a specific part of a cancer. Some cells die when this high intensity ultrasound beam is focused directly onto them."

     The Tumor- John Grisham



Alternative Choices
     Frankincense Oil

"In 2013, the University of Leicester conveniently published just before Christmas that has rekindled this theory. According to their press release, the Omani government-funded research has (for the first time) uncovered that frankincense has the ability to target cancer cells in late-stage ovarian cancer patients. And this all appeared to be due to AKBA (acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid)."

     Medical marijuana- Cannaboils

'Medical marijuana is gaining acceptance, but could it even help kids? Dr. William Courtney has seen it happen, and on Friday, told HuffPost Live host Alyona Minkovski about it. Saying he was "quite a skeptic 5 or 6 years ago", Dr. Courtney continued that "my youngest patient is 8 months old, and had a very massive centrally located inoperable brain tumor." The child's father pushed for non-traditional treatment utilizing cannabis.
"They were putting cannabinoid oil on the baby's pacifier twice a day, increasing the dose... And within two months there was a dramatic reduction, enough that the pediatric oncologist allowed them to go ahead with not pursuing traditional therapy."'

For Fun
     Brain Freeze
     Chocolate and the Brain
     Brain Tumor T-shirts from a survivor

So much reading, but so many different areas and forms of care and being created that offer hope and the possibility for life. Being given a life sentence is devastating. it changes you in many ways. Even if you are blessed to have what is considered a benign tumor, it still changes you and affects your very life. Some wait, with no possibility of healing or prevention, and watch as they worsen and lose who they are. Loss of executive functioning skills, memory, emotional management, even personality changes are common. Seizure is a constant risk. Hope offers a chance for more. To move beyond the limits of the mind and let the body do what it does best, heal itself.

God bless and keep you. We live in exciting times.

Rudolph- That Amazing Reindeer

On a December night in Chicago several years ago, a little girl climbed onto her father's lap and asked a question. It was a simple question, asked in a child's curiosity, yet it had a heartrending effect on Robert May.

"Daddy," four year old Barbara asked, "Why isn't my Mommy just like everybody else's mommy?"

Bob May stole a glance across his shabby two-room apartment. On a couch lay his young wife, Evelyn, racked with cancer. For two years she had been bedridden; for two years all Bob's income and smaller savings had gone to pay for treatments and medicines. The terrible ordeal had shattered two adult lives. Now Bob suddenly realized the happiness of his daughter was also in jeopardy. As he ran his fingers through Barbara's hair, he prayed for some satisfactory answer to her question.

Bob May knew only too well what it meant to be "different". As a child he had been weak and delicate. With the innocent cruelty of children, his playmates had continually goaded the stunted, skinny lad to tears. Later at Dartmouth, from which he graduated in 1926, Bob May was so small he was always mistaken as someone's little brother. Nor was his adult life much happier. Unlike many of his classmates who floated into plush jobs, Bob became a lowly copy writer for Montgomery Ward, the big Chicago mail order house. Now at thirty-three, Bob was deeper in debt, depressed and sad.

Although Bob didn't know at the time, the answer he gave the tousled haired child on his lap was to bring him fame and fortune. It was also to bring joy to countless thousands of children like his own Barbara. On that December night in the shabby Chicago apartment, Bob cradles his little girl's head against his shoulder and begins to tell a story...

"Once upon a time there was a reindeer named Rudolph, the only reindeer in the world with a big red nose. Naturally people called him Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." As Bob went on to tell about Rudolph, he tried desperately to communicate to Barbara the knowledge that, even though some creatures of God are strange and different, they often enjoy the miraculous power to make others happy.

Rudolph, Bob explained, was terribly embarrassed by his unique nose. Other reindeer laughed at him; his mother and father and sister were mortified too. Even Rudolph wallowed in self-pity.

"Why was I born with such a terrible nose?"

"Well," continued Bob, "One Christmas Eve, Santa Claus got his team of husky reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen ready for their yearly trip around the world. The entire reindeer community assembled to cheer these great heroes on their way. But terrible fog engulfed the earth that evening, and Santa knew the mist was so thick he wouldn't be able to find any chimney.

Suddenly Rudolph appeared, his red nose glowing brighter than ever, Santa sensed at once here was the answer to his perplexing problem. He led Rudolph to the front of the sleigh, fastened the harness and climbed in. They were off! Rudolph guided Santa safely to every chimney that night. Rain, fog, snow and sleet; noting bothered Rudolph, for his nose penetrated the fog like a beacon.

And so it was that Rudolph became the most famous and beloved reindeer. The huge red nose he once hid in shame was now the envy of every buck and doe in the reindeer world. Santa Claus told everyone that Rudolph had saved the day and from that Christmas, Rudolph has been living serenely happy. "

Little Barbara laughed with glee when her father finished. Every  night she begged him to repeat he tale until finally Bob could rattle it off in his sleep. Then at Christmas time he decided to make the story into a poem like "The Night before Christmas" and prepare it in bookish form illustrated with crude pictures, for Barbara's personal gift.

Night after night, Bob worked on the verses after Barbara had gone to bed for he was determined his daughter should have a worthwhile gift, even though he could not afford to buy one. Then as Bob was about to put the finishing touches on Rudolph, tragedy struck. Evelyn May died.  Bob, his hopes crushed, turned to Barbara as his chief comfort. Yet, despite his grief, he sat at his desk in the quiet now lonely apartment, and worked on "Rudolph" with tears in his eyes.

Shortly after Barbara had cried with joy over his handmade gift on Christmas morning, Bob was asked to an employee's holiday party at Montgomery Ward. He didn't want to go but his office associates insisted. When Bob finally agreed, he took with him the poem and read it to the crowd. At first the noisy throng listened in laughter and gaiety. Then they became silent, and at the end, broke into spontaneous applause. That was in 1938.

By Christmas 1947, some 6,000,000 copies of the booklet had been given away or sold making Rudolph one of the most widely distributed books in the world. The demand for Rudolph sponsored products, increased so much in variety and number that educators and historians predicted Rudolph would come to occupy a permanent niche in the Christmas legend.

The above account was given to me years ago. History sometimes tells different tales of the origin of a story. Below you can see and read with Barbara the original manuscript and read other thoughts on the origin of Rudolph. For personal reasons. I still love the above story. I am a different kind of mommy without the ability to run and roughhouse with my young boys. There is still joy and maybe like Rudolph, I will also find purpose in this new life.

 Robert May and Rudolph

Snowed In

Sometimes with healing I feel completely snowed with all that has happened. Covered in a land of icy white that leaves all to the imagination, under a layer of snow. I have found joy in the weather despite being homebound when this happens.

Everything is white and clean. The chill air calms my nerves and allows me to function longer and better. Summer heat and its resulting fatigue are only a memory. Everything smells lovely; cocoa and cider, cookies, and homemade bread. Taste is still a journey with part of my tongue numb, but I can enjoy the good stuff. A side benefit is that cookies don't taste quite the same, so I don't eat as many. I rest more, take it easy and slow. I'm more patient and willing to take my time with things.

A snowstorm has hit this week and today I woke up to find everything white. We can't even see the city on the east bench of the valley. Flurries continue to swirl and all I feel is safe and warm. Not everything is perfect, I don't need it to be. There are perfect moments of joy and that is more than enough. What a glorious journey life is.

God bless and keep you and may you find joy this holiday season.

What does Faith have to do with it?

Today the question was posed on a support group forum this person essentially asked- Why all the prayers posts? Isn't this a medical support site?

My reply on the forum was the following, "I think empathy and sharing the emotional challenges does have a place here. A medical only forum would still include that and for some hope and prayer are part of their medical and healing path. Choosing not to share in that way does not mean that it does not have value. I respect the rights of others but have gained needed encouragement and help on dark days for myself. I think if we shift more personal conversations to messages then it is fine. Emotional help is just as valid if not more so than physical symptoms.

I have to admit Faith and emotional support, for me, are large parts of healing. Faith creates hope and belief that this is not some blip on my life. This journey serves a purpose. I will come out of this stronger and better than before, because I have faith that I will. The psychological world is approaching the impact of faith and hope on healing. In fact my doctors have said that a positive outlook will say more about a patients recovery than any tests.

A positive outlook allows us to look past the pain and the hurt, and the now to see the future. The future we hope and pray to obtain. So yes, faith and prayers have  a place in the medical world. For some they are necessary, others may choose not to participate but that in no way should affect those of us who do. It comes down to simple respect and love for each other as human beings.

So, my prayers for your recovery and that you find the path to healing that you need. I believe that God loves us individually. He knows us. He knows who we are and what we need. He is a great God. May He bless and keep you.

Please enjoy the following messages on brain health and healing...