_Click here: Cancer today has a new face,' Healy says_
(http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainmen\
t/117507128646300.xm
l&coll=2)
or
_http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainm
ent/117507128646300.xml&coll=2_
(http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainmen\
t/117507128646300.xml&coll=2)

This is another long story I just saw about Dr Healy and her new book, below
has the whole first chapter that I am sure every one who has had surgery or
a loved someone who had brain surgery will relate to, So you will not feel so
alone. Some other older readers here may be a bit more like me, because I
do not like to keep reliving those early days of my poat op recovery back in
1986 after the doctor said a large tumor mass had been discovered in my head.
It was actually an emotional relief to me. I thought I was becoming a lazy
hypocondriac I was so tired all the time or going crazy from lack of peace of
mind about my own health. It was a relief in a way to be told there was a
physical cause for my fatigue, female emotional distress and fainting spells
and it brought some of my family back closer to me.

I was pleasantly surprised to read Dr Healy say she held off on the brain
radiation initially on page 4 at least, in this first chapter. I have
personally held off on brain radiation since it was first recommended for me by
the
Southwest Tumor Board in 1992. I doubt I would be as healthy as I am now, if
I had the only type of radiation that was available here then.

As soon as someone reads the whole book, could you please tell us me if she
has any radiation or more surgery in the subsequent years since 1999? and
what type of chemo she had?
_http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=2983079&page=1_
(http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=2983079&page=1)

Please read more about Dr Bernadine Healy's life, and background I think her
own philosopy is alot like mine, I believe the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself. So be not afraid...I believe that our world turns as it will
and always has since the beginning of recorded time. Please believe that
you are in the right place at the right time now in your own life and in human
history, and we can all still be pioneers in brain tumor research. I have to
constantly try to remind myself to do the best I can, with what I have been
given, and what I can learn and remember, the rest of it is out of our hands.


Long and Off Topic rambling somewhat, but I just felt compelled to write it
all down, if you are in a medical crisis right now, please don't bother to
read it all now it is background reading material.

I am always sort of conflicted about sharing my own medical experiences and
personal opinions because they are unpopular with some, but there almost seem
to be as many medical opinions about surgery or radiation as there are
doctors with different brand name treatment plans and medical equipment.

Once you really get into reading the current medical research and then
reading what doctors say to their different patients as reported by bt patients
or
their family members on here it gets more confusing, each case is so
different. . And we never remember every word exactly the same as another
person
might because we all have unique attitudes, outlooks and belief systems
ourselves, our thoughts and personal opinions are always based on other
additional
information and personal experiences we have had. Some people are even
afraid of hospitals or doctors because of their own previous family
experiences.
Some might think high tech brain radiation is better because it seems more
modern and less bloody than brain surgery, and marketing materials promise such
an easy cure, but surgical equipment is high tech now too and it is still
best to get the whole tumor out if at all possible. I know my doctors are
great! I'm just very cautious about having any radiation to my brain yet,
because
it has to go through my healthy brain tissue to get to the tumor and maybe I
have already had or inherited more dental x ray radiation exposure than is
good for me and from my parents, so I think I may have more serious genetic
reactions or complications than some others.

Some more tangental thoughts here:
I often find that I am my own worst enemy, especially when I let my own
procrastination, my doubts about my own abilities, my own weaknesses and my
actual failures or my imagined catastrophic guilt or oversized sense of
responsibility get in my own way and slow me down or prevent me from focusing
on my own
goals, step by step

I still have literally a real "swelled head" from this darn tumor taking
up so much room before and two craniotomies. Now in "enplaque meningioma"
thin sheets along the inside skull margins of my remaining upper portion of the
left temporal lobe and down towards the brain stem.. MY lower left temporal
lobe wing was apparently slowly and gradually compressed out of existence
before my first surgery in 1986 and more recently the bony tumor growth in the
spheniod bone around my left eye and bony canal that the optic nerve passes
through has gradually totally compressed my left optic nerve. None-the-less,
this was many years after two successful surgeries to debulk and remove it
without hurting my vision or my neuro cognitive abilities. In 1986 they only
removed my soft tumor tissue, maybe they didn't understand or see the need to
remove bony involvement in those days
The first time it was 5 cm in diameter before it was discovered, highly
vascular in nature (it had a developed a good blood supply of its own before I
was 39) and it had apparently indolently and slowly moved the middle of my
brain over an inch and a half off center to the right without any visible
serious neurological symptoms, until I began having fainting spells and
headaches
which I blamed on personal stress, my PMS symptoms and so did my doctors for
several years in my mid thirties. With hindsight, I can remember my gradual
lack of accurate depth perception, I stubbed my toes alot, I hit a fence in
the parking lot and my emotional distractions and the lack of focused
concentration or good sleep. After the National Cancer Institute clinical
trial Phase
three I was in closed in 1999 and it was 2.5 cm behind my left eye in 2000,
I had it "safely debulked again" at Barrows Neurological Institute in Phoenix
by Dr Robert Spetzler and his excellent team of resident neurosurgeons, it
was going to be "a piece of cake" to quote Dr Spetzler, he had to scrape away
some of the involved bone, but he couldn't get it all . I trusted him
absolutely, I knew it was out of my hands. And I recovered well in a few
months.

It still feels like a numbskull sometimes on my left side of my face, and
I'm a real pop top now too, lol, But I am not a stupid,screw-off, just slower
to change gears and/or refocus...or maybe more passionate about what is
really most important in my life now, and focused helping other individuals to
get
the best medical care available. I am taking Mifepristone (brand name
Mifeprex) again now anyway since Feb 2005 and continue to alert others to its
potential ability to stall some subset type of benign meningioma tumor growth,
when the tumor has mostly progesterone receptors, not estrogen receptors.

My real life priorities get confused and mixed up sometimes...or I am
misunderstood in person or printed email or just totally ignored by others
perhaps
because of the stigma of my brain injury, other mental health issues or the
self- limiting effects of our busy lifestyles... Brain injury makes it very
difficult for some of us to focus or concentrate, especially on my long
rambling sentences right after their or their loved ones brain surgery. So
please
feel free to delete my journal type story.

But I believe I may be among the few still in my right mind in America when
I see that my own persistence and determination to never give up and keep on
keepin on is an essential character ingredient I still do possess in
abundance, Thank GOD I may seem obsessive about brains to some, but I always
knew
kids and adults could and would only learn what they really wanted to learn
like the little engine that could, I think I can, I think I can, and every
mountain that was in front of me automatically turns into a mole hill when I
get
to the top of the hill and get to see how many others have made it too. OUR
MIND SET IS VITAL FOR OUR SURVIVAL, NEVER GIVE UP REAL HOPE OR YOUR CURIOUSITY

I have not had any brain radiation yet, thanks to many informative personal
email posts by many people on earlier bt lists starting in October 1992 and
1993 I was well aware of the longterm late risks of individual cummulative life
time doses of brain radiation that can cause cancer after long latency
periods. And the genetic mutations that maybe caused by radiation exposure and
then perhaps even inherited by our children and children's children, but I am
not a scientist or a doctor, just an experienced bt survivor who so far has
lucked out, and have been greatly blessed in many ways for many years.

My own Dad survived thirty years after his diagnosis with prostate cancer
without any radiation or surgery, just expensive hormonal Lupron shots
(curiously Lupron was also used to shrink my sisters uterine fibriods) until
he
finally failed at 87 due to multiple myeloma, a fairly new label for a form of
bone and blood cancer. My younger brother has survived testicular cancer for
many years, and he did have radiation treatment. My mom and all my three
sisters and me have had uterine fibroids, so there must be something inherited
since fibroids look like meningioma under a microscope too. I was born in1947
right after my Dad was back from the Pacific in WWII I had iron deficiency
anemia, my universal donor type O blood was weakened by something already in my
own system from birth. Then growing up I had regular annual dental xrays on
old machines fifty and sixty years ago and it has only been in the past
decade that previous ionizing radiation treatment has been medically identified
as
a definite contributing factor after long latency periods for our meningioma
brain tumors.


Keep your faith, cherish your reason, treasure your mind and hold to your
own good purpose


I have added some new articles to my journal below if you'd like to read
more later about voting to advance medical science in NJ next week, using
millions of doomed surplus embryos that have always been discarded anyway for
one
reason or another by many prospective parents and their doctors at fertility
clinics for the past thirty years. (wrong sex or some other defects) but it
was never considered murder until Bush personally described recycling them for
medical research as murder.

Many of our lives will depend on new advances in neural stem cell research,
they might repair my optic nerve and my lost left eye vision someday, and
replace benign brain tumor cells with new neural stem cells and it could happen
sooner rather than later, if they would just start some more human clincal
trials instead of spending so much of our government tax money on more RATS
(redundant animal test scores) They can repair motor brain damage and vision in
mice with stem cells already...

I just saw that news anchor man journalist Bob Woodruff, who survived a
terrible brain injury from a IED street bomb in Iraq (he was in a coma for many
weeks and had his skull mostly removed because of the brain swelling) He
looks and sounds great again now. I recently read he and his wife have two
artificially produced young children by having their medically joined personal
lab
embryos implanted in a surrogate birthing woman, besides their two naturally
born children of their own. I wonder what they think now about donating
left over frozen surplus embryos they had made for themselves to neural stem
cell research study or have they just discarded and destroyed them like so
many others? I hope someone will ask him or her....

My state of Arizona Senator McCain has come around on this stem cell issue,
so please thank him for voting yes on S 5, and please contact
Sen Jon Kyl Tucson Phone: (520) 575-8633 to encourage him to join the 21st
century and vote yes to override the Bush veto
Fax: (520) 797-3232
Or to contact your senators in other states go to:
(http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm)
http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


Please scroll down and look for more of my journal musings on our meningioma
tales (dural tails or growth spurs?)and other GREY MATTERS of interest to me
about MIFEPREX, a badly maligned alternative drug therapy for meningioma
brain tumors, my views about donating doomed surplus frozen embryonic lab
specime
ns to medical science, the birth of new brain cells in adults, the evolution
of the theory of neurogenesis, etc

The cold war was a good time, we spent much of our federal budget on "thank
God never used" Titan missile defense systems and for space and satellite spy
technology that frightened the rest of the world into economic compliance.
But the real war on cancer was never adequately funded in the last fifty
years and has never become a high enough national or global human spendng
priority. Current US treatment has just begun to blossom into life preserving
treatments that can turn cancer into a chronic condition we just have to learn
to
live with....Nixon declared WAR ON CANCER thirty years ago, but we have never
spent enough money on such a vital human priority because lack of vision
and understanding because of social issues and other political propaganda.

In one year in Iraq we have have spent more money on military aggression and
the domination of foreign soil, oil and controlled subsidies to get our own
economic way within our military empire of 37 worldwide military bases than
in the whole past thirty years of the War on Cancer. What a shame! What a
terrible mistake in our national spending priorities. There is absolutely
no such thing as Homeland Security in this country, and never will be, if we
don't have our health and our homes safe from natural disasters like the
California fires and Katrina floods or home invasions and most of all the
terrible human diseases like CANCER which will now kill two or three out of
five
people we know in our own lifetimes.

Hospital medical errors and infections are another very serious risk today,
they mostly occur when doctors and nurses have too many patients, too many
reports to file and not enough good nurses and qualified staff to handle them,
especially in not enough highly skilled neurology intensive care units,
neurosurgery and neuro-oncology departments in local community hospitals . (see
my
heightened personal bias here?) Cardiac heart care is just as important
too, etc etc but it is a fact simple medical hospital errors do kill more
Americans today than any single disease like breast cancer or AIDS. So ALWAYS
have
someone double check your prescriptions and other meds for drug interactions
online. High malpractice insurance premiums are driving many good
specialist doctors out of Arizona and other rural areas because we have no caps
on
personal injury awards in our AZstate constitution Many can not make a good
living unless we figure out how to control the insurance industry and lawsuits.
Radiation is more cost effective for insurance companies than a highly
skilled neurosurgery department.

Another topic
I can never figure out why more people don't realize their brains are more
important than their breasts, their looks or even their manhood. For the
majority of ordinary Americans, the real terrorist cells are cancer cells well
hidden within our own bodies, they are not foreign terrorists at all, actually
genetic mutations, metal toxins, human viruses and/or bacteria we have taken
in and absorbed into our bodily systems

We can lose sight of the real importance of human priorities unless we have
experienced the loss of loved ones and/or been a seriously ill hospital
patient ourselves. We have lost a true global perspective, or we never had one
about the deadly human diseases which can strike people indiscriminately around
the world, but mostly are controlled now in industrialized nations. For
example TB and other human diseases like malaria are not common here anymore,
but tratable diseases like measles and malaria, hook worms and diarrhea from
bad water still kill millions of poor people in other third world countries
today.

Most foreign terrorists are just other people, mostly angry young and old
men, desperate for money or power and control when they don't think they have
enough for their own protection and survival. Make love, not war was a slogan
from the sixties, but many people in this country took it literally to mean
have sex and God became making love. lol Protecting our children and
providing for our families takes time and talent, not just more money. Family
sexuality values have suffered in our society where anything goes to get ahead
of
someone else in the career and job rat race.

Distortions occur in our own thinking patterns, we have more actual risks of
brain cell loss from everyday things around us like domestic gun assaults
and mugging, shaken baby syndrome, child abuse, alcohol abuse, DUIs traffic
accidents, car, truck, motorcycle, and bike traffic accidents, stroke, heart
attack and cancer than from brain tumor removal. These daily risks are a much
greater and more likely to threaten our lives and bring serious consequences
of life long traumatic brain injury to homes in America than any immigration
movement or new foreigners unless they bring and spread human sexual diseases
indiscriminately.

Its time to get real again.... It is actually safer to have brain surgery
for a cranial brain tumor removal than it is to face the everyday risks of
serious brain injury from a traffic accident on your regular way to a local
shopping center every week, but we don't really see that because we have
adjusted
to the statisitics and been habilitualized to heavy local road commuter
traffic in suburbia. It is really more likely that we might suffer brain
injury
from a mugger or an abusive partner in todays America. Or someone may
emotionally or physically abuse our own children while we are both away at
work. I
think media hype, human habitualization and TV violence have distorted our
intuitive natural human sense of danger and caution much more than we realize.
I think physical domestic violence, lack of anger management control, drugs,
excessive drinking and passive aggressive behaviors are have created family
communication problems we have not been addressing adequately enough as we sit
silent and fearful too often in our own homes, our communities, our school
systems, our military manuvers and international war regions.

_http://journals.aol.com/anne91547/anne-mcginnis-breens-articles/_
(http://journals.aol.com/anne91547/anne-mcginnis-breens-articles/)
GBYAY Anne McGinnis Breen
_mailto_ (http://mailto/) _Anne91547@..._ (mailto:Anne91547@...)

Oh WOW this time it turned blue, instead of black or purple, my AOL journal
url above I mean, the urls I added at the top about Dr Bernadine Healy are
still underlined in blue, so I do hope they work for you. I guess I still
need more lessons on how to keep up with my own new computer and the new aol
system, lol
Please look up your elected senators and find out how they voted on issues
important to you.
I see Cindyrixey's mail box is full too



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