Now, twenty-one and one-half months after my diagnosis, I’ve been through 18 cycles of chemotherapy and vaccine therapy. In April 2006, at twelve months after the onset of my first headache, I achieved my “big goal” for the first year after diagnosis: I again ran the 5K Run For the Rose race and then served as grand marshal for the event on my motorcycle, leading 600 other motorcyclists on a 50-mile group ride to raise more funds for brain tumor research.
The vaccine therapy protocols, based upon my treatment and that of the patients who have followed me, have all been changed to always give the vaccine treatments synchronized with chemotherapy at both M.D. Anderson on and Duke University, with many other hospitals across the country soon to follow. My most recent brain MRI scan (February 12, 2007) shows no evidence of any tumor or any suspicious areas for tumor. And I’m still working every day, seeing patients in clinic and doing special pain procedures and special radiotherapy procedures (radiosurgery, focused radiotherapy).
Rhonda has been the solid rock upon which I’ve survived through all this time and has been there even when I’ve not been the best-spirited patient in the world. In my opinion, she’s a good candidate for sainthood! The kids have all stayed in college or at their jobs.
Yes—I’m still riding the motorcycle every day to and from work and on group rides. My big goal for 2007 is to ride 1500 miles in August to the big national motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. I even have two other cancer patients/survivors that will ride their motorcycles with me from Houston to Sturgis.
What is the bottom line of what I’ve learned over twenty years of taking care of cancer patients—and then the past almost two years as a cancer patient? STAY ACTIVE! Cancer patients need to force themselves to keep moving and also keep eating so that A LOT of calories are coming into the body. We need to have long-term goals, supportive understanding families, and strong faith that can serve as a foundation upon which we can land when the inevitable bumps in the road occur.
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