Dear Good People,

Please believe me,  I don't want to frighten or scare anyone, but the real
terrorist cells we ought to be fighting are abnormal cells from minor DNA
genetic mutations we inherit and possibly are caused by previous generations of
cumulative lifetime radiation exposure damage hiding in our own bodies.  Almost
half of Americans alive today will die from cancer or serious complications from
hospital treatment errors which kill more people than breast cancer today. 
Foreign terrorists have nothing to do with our cancer risk, we have probably
done it to ourselves.

This real documented personal story below is proof that surgery and/or radiation
can be no more than a quick temporary fix even for a single small benign golf
ball sized meningioma brain tumor.  Some doctors and some public media
interests continue to dismiss these possibly benign brain tumors as incidental
MRI findings, especially in middle aged women, like a mole, a cyst or a
headache. 

Please pass this one on because I am hoping people will finally become more
aware of the progression risks and increasing health care costs involved with
using either standard medically invasive treatment options currently available
for a so called "harmless" condition which many still believe is not cancer
although at least 4 to 10% are malignant and brain radiation is becoming
standard follow up treatment for recurrence instead of the more traditional
"second look" surgery for a benign tumor .  I was also first diagnosed with
benign meningioma at age 39 and now I am sixty, but I have politely refused
radiation therapy since 1992. 

Kathi Goertzen is in my thoughts and prayers for her third treatment and a full
recovery again after her additional six weeks of radiation.  She is a real
professional trooper, she is a real story and I also hope the third time is a
charm.  I believe we have to hang on to our faith and our wits, when we "Let go
and Let GOD". And please remember our doctor is not GOD. So always get a second
independent qualified medical opinion before you let anyone operate or radiate
in your brain or your loved ones. They can make mistakes just like I do...and
keep on keepin on. KOKO

GBYAY means Good bye and God Bless You And Yours, from Anne McGinnis Breen

Now a twenty two year survivor of a recurrent benign meningioma taking a safe
FDA approved investigational anti-hormone progesterone receptor modulating
compound drug therapy MIFEPREX  to stall further benign meningioma regrowth
that most doctors still are not allowed to offer or consider as a reasonable
alternative choice for some patients yet.  My medical reports and the history
of my current drug therapy and 28 questions to ask your medical team about any
low grade brain tumor and some other serious grey matters can be found at 

http://journals.aol.com/anne91547/anne-mcginnis-breens-articles/

KOMO-TV anchor Kathi Goertzen having another brain surgery

By Florangela Davila

Seattle Times staff reporter






PREV  of  NEXT






MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES



KOMO news director Holly Gauntt, left, gives news anchor Kathi Goertzen a hug in
the KOMO newsroom on Wednesday.





Related


Archive | Kathi Goertzen's hearing improves after surgery

Archive | KOMO's Goertzen recovering from surgery




To send well wishes
You can leave a voice-mail message for Kathi Goertzen at 206-404-5284 or e-mail:
kathi@.... Her taped statement is available at www.komotv.com.


Kathi Goertzen, one of the most recognizable broadcasters in town, would so much
rather be story teller than story subject. But here she is, on the eve of yet
another brain surgery, being interviewed in her newsroom, stopping to field hugs
from co-workers.

The KOMO-TV anchor is scheduled to have surgery Thursday morning to remove part
of a tumor that has regrown at the base of her brain. It'll be the third time
she's undergone the procedure in the past 10 years.

"I hate putting everyone through this again. I really do especially my friends,
my family and loved ones," says Goertzen, 49. "It really stinks."

The diagnosis that she had a tumor near the base of her brain first arrived in
1998 when her face became numb and she lost hearing in her right ear. Surgery
and radiation treatment followed and then, happily, her hearing returned. But
there were always chances that the tumor, a golf-ball size meningioma, would
regrow.

And it did.

A second surgery and more radiation ensued in 2005 to beat the benign tumor,
which was never fully removed because it was intertwined with nerves affecting
speech and swallowing. Her voice would sometimes shake a little. On occasion
she'd have trouble swallowing or catching her breath. But there were indeed
periods of time when Goertzen wouldn't even think about the tumor at all.

"I usually think about it a week before I go in for an MRI and I wonder, 'Oh,
has it regrown?' But the rest of the time ... . I've been dealing with this for
10 years and you know, you've got to live your life."

When an MRI, taken some eight months ago, showed the tumor was growing again
Goertzen hoped it was just caused by swelling. When it wasn't, she chose
surgery.

"Third time's a charm, right?" she wrote in an e-mail to her newsroom earlier
this week, wanting to make sure she told the staff first before talking
publicly.

Goertzen, a Seattle native, is nothing if not loyal to KOMO-TV. She interned at
the station while a student at Washington State University, then took a
full-time job there after graduation, reporting and anchoring the news for the
past 28 years.

She's earned five Emmys, an Edward R. Murrow Award and endless acclaim from the
public for both her journalism and longtime community-service work.

She's a wife, married to Rick Jewett, who works in sales at the station, and a
mother of two daughters, Alexa, 18 and Andrea, 12. "This whole experience has
drawn us closer," she says.

On TV, Goertzen comes across as amiable and real. In the newsroom, colleagues
say, she's smart and gracious.

During an interview, under exceedingly difficult circumstances, she is warm and
open, gently cursing at herself when she feels like she's about to weep —
"Where's the freaking Kleenex?" — and funny.

"What did someone say the other day? It's like I'm giving it a little haircut,"
she says about her tumor and the pending surgery. "I'm going in for a little
trim."

Says Eric Johnson, KOMO-TV news and sports anchor: "She's so strong and I think
it buoys all of us."

This time, rather than Goertzen breaking the news of her surgery on TV as if it
were any other story, she pretaped a five-minute segment in the living room of
her Seattle home, on the couch with Johnson, weather anchor Steve Pool and her
longtime co-anchor Dan Lewis. Goertzen and Lewis have anchored the evening
newscasts for 20 years.

The emotional segment led Wednesday night's 5 p.m. newscast.

"What can viewers do?" Johnson asks her.

"Say a prayer," Goertzen replies, her dog Kahlua at her feet. "It's helped me
before and I know it will help me again."

"I have a 'Let go, let God' attitude," she says. "I turn it all over to God.
That's how I deal with it."

The surgery, scheduled for 8:30 a.m., is expected to last some four hours. She
anticipates radiation treatment to continue for six weeks.

Her support system includes sisters, a brother-in-law and her parents, who live
just up the street. Mom was scheduled to make dinner last night.

Goertzen had planned to celebrate a milestone birthday — her 50th — with
five longtime girlfriends on a trip at the end of the month. The celebration is
now on hold until the fall.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@...




Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company


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