Every day of the week Misha travels on a courtesy shuttle provided by the hospital to travel to Ontario to receive radiation. She is joined by five older people also receiving radiation, making Misha the youngest at twenty years old on the bus. I decided to join her on my day off from school and work.
Misha is nearing the end of her radiation therapy, which is a big feat considering all the hell it has put her through. She has suffered countless nosebleeds, a drop in her counts, and chemotherapy has been put off because of it.
Every day of the week Misha travels on a courtesy shuttle provided by the hospital to travel to Ontario to receive radiation. She is joined by five older people also receiving radiation, making Misha the youngest at twenty years old on the bus. I decided to join her on my day off from school and work.
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In the past week I have been contacted by two people who have encouraged me to write about the Mesothelioma Group to my readers. I took some time to look over their website and found it was very similar to how Get Through it Together is set up. They tell you what mesothelioma is, how to understand cancer, and the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, coping process, and finding a doctor.
Much like this website, they also offer scholarships, which have been linked to on the scholarships page here. They offer help for not only mesothelioma cancer patients but to patients with different kinds of cancer and also military veterans' families. I would like to apologize for the few month pause on this website. There have been a few things happening recently that I would like to explain. First things first, I'm in college now. Second, I got a job. And third, but probably most important, Misha had to be pulled from school for medical reasons.
In March, when my posts stopped, my sister had developed a mass on her neck and complained about it to my parents. We were hoping it was just an infection, but the lump kept getting bigger and bigger. Hello Everyone! It's a new year (even though we're a quarter of the way in) and what does that mean? More Brain Tumor Walks! These walks are incredible. All money raised goes to brain tumor research and helping brain tumor patients through the National Brain Tumor Society.
Everyday I find out new facts about brain tumors, or just cancer in general. I go out of my way to find out more about new treatments or research being conducted so I can tell you all about it.
This week I found out something about the body's immune system. Everyday your immune system destroys at least one cancer cell. That means everyday you can develop cancer, but your body recognizes that the cell is dangerous and destroys it. WOW! So recently I've been getting emails asking about a more personalized treatment plan for patients. Where these emails asked me to tell them exactly what to do, I'm afraid I cannot do that. I can however, explain what personalized or individualized treatments are and what they can do for you as a patient.
Personalized treatments are exactly what they say. It is a relatively new focus on medicine that goes for that particular patient. The drugs are tailored for each person's individual brain tumor. This is when it is referred to as individualized medicine. I know the usual content you find on this blog is about brain tumors and research. Sometimes I like to post about people. Specifically people who have overcome brain tumors. This week I would like to talk about one person, Heather Knies.
Heather was given a death sentence. Diagnosed six years ago with not just one but TWO brain tumors, one being a grade 4 glioblastoma, Heather is now cancer free. Her doctors at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona are speechless. They cannot explain it. Hello Everyone! I have some good news for you today. About a month ago I mentioned that I was writing a book. It would expand on what Get Through it Together is offering and would be available for everyone. Guess what? It's here!
Hello everyone! It is the last day of 2012 and I know each one of you have a resolution or something you want to do this year. I know I do. I have a list that grows by the week.
This new year, much like any other new year, we should try to give back a little bit. Give to charity. Donate toys to a local hospital, or pillows and blankets to a homeless shelter. There is something that I plan to do this year for children living with a brain tumor. Hello everyone! I have two things I would like to share with you today. At beginning of the week I was contacted by someone from Strong Films. They create inspirational videos. This particular video I was sent was about a little girl named Chloe, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
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