"- But there is also life-" Thoughts about family planning as an almost 10-year brain tumor survivor....

Long time no post, I apologize. Actually, there is some unlikely, incredible news in my life I would like to share:

I am becoming a father!!

Back then, when discussing how long to take the Temozolomide Chemotherapy with my doctor ("There is no definite answer"), she told me, several of her former patients told her they wanted to come off early since they were planning to have a child. At the time this seemed just completely otherworldly for me: Diseased,  deathbound, as I felt:
even CONSIDERING having a child  seemed completely unthinkable to me. At the same time, after the darkest days, thinking about what truly counts, I realized what I would really want in my life is to have a family, for me, who always valued independency, this change of attitude felt quite surprising. I observerd myself with this self-observing remoteness that I sometimes have and was genuinely surprised. Now, in our relationship, especially as she already knew me when I got sick, children were not as much a topic as they are in "normal" relationships.
We did talk about it, though. And we came to the conclusion to go ahad anyway. Although being very much aware of my condition (and the possibility of cancer recurrence), we stopped taking contraceptive measures, in a way expecting, it would not happen anyway because of her age. Basically we decided to leave it to destiny. Now she is pregnant!! I WILL BE A FATHER! Its a boy! Healthy as much as medicine can tell. Of course, since I likely inherited a predisposition to my disease he may have too. Old question: is it responsible to have children then?
My answer is also influenced by my life since my surgery and may sound a bit all-too enlightened (I am not, certainly!): 

Every day of life is a gift and worth living!  Despite the knowledge, I may still die from this thing one day. Every day, also the dull, unremarkable days, which are still many. BUT: we all have to die from something some day. And hey, I already got 10years!!!!

That grim Reaper is waiting for all of us somewhere in that corner up there..... Or as my Oncologist once said, the only difference is, that different from most  I have some idea, what it will be. Nobody knows when. especially now, that I held on almost 10 years ( precisely, 07th of February 2015 will be my 10th anniversary since surgery.
I should say both, me and my girlfriend, are not the typical parenting age anymore (she 45 , myself 51)
I agree, it may be selfish, but can I really be blamed for trusting in my survival? Its part of being a survivor to keep living with all consequences, even if fathering as an unlikely cancer survivor of course raises some questions. Anyone, who comes across these lines out there, please let me know your thoughts!
Its a difficult thing. Also this is why I am very happy that, against all odds (age, prior chemotherapy) it happened all naturally, without medical help! (of course it still was medical help that made me live until today!)
Now all this comes at a time after there just was a lot of death and illness in my family. My mother died, last February (aged 92) from a series of strokes after a period of not being able to care for herself anymore, My sister in law died from cancer (aged 65) a year ago, so did her husband, my brother (aged 66), a year and a half ago. All seemed so dominated by dying and deteriorating, all life just being that mercyless long slippery slope towards the inevitable, illness, palliative care, death.

"- But there is also life-"

...the only thing we as insignificant little humans can throw out at this universe.

To say: "YES!"

A life most ordinary

Again, after a long time another "sign of life"! I have to remind myself that I am also writing to tell the world I am still here! 8.5 years post surgery and counting! Todays entry is about litle defects  and the urge to scrutinize every little issue that could hint to something bad re-appearing. No, I have not done an MRI lately. I wrote about the difficulty in this decision before. The last one I did was before I talked my girlfriend into moving here: I wanted to make sure that the status quo is still what it was. And, stupid as it may sound, that it is "worth it" to move in with me. Since then I have seen the Neurologist, but did not specifically ask for the MRI.  Essentially I believe, that if something would really move there in my head, I would know from increasing difficulties. But I am still doing science, just submitting a paper to a well-known journal (which will, inevitably, be rejected, at first at least) (If somebody who follows this blog is working in science too, you know all-too-well what I am talking about!) At least this tells me, I am still able to think straight. However the frequency of typos reminds me of my ( mostly subtle, however sometimes not-so-subtle) defects, I have: Searching for things right in front of me on a crowded shelf, leaving stuff on the table in the restaurant, Also I believe my temper has worsened, compared to what I used to be BEFORE (the "turning point" in my life, my "loss of innocence/immortality". In my old lab I was known to be a "such a mellow guy". Now I can get VERY angry at times. OK, everybody has fights in a relationship. But sometimes the anger on meaningless issues really surprises me. I still would like to find a good meditation group. We had one at Salk back then, which I found extremely helpful in so many ways (anger, fear, concentration, self-awareness). If anything, meditation is the one thing I would highly recommend to any tumor survivor and beyond that, to anyone recovering from brain injury. OK now sorry, short  entry. Have to leave. off to watch a movie now. As I say "a life most ordinary". And isn't that the best thing to have? Once you believed to have lost it for good! I know its not necessary over. But, hell, last thing dies the hope.

Take care,

Thomas :-)

Sleepless in Hamburg

Just a short entry out of sleeplessness. Went to bed and could not sleep. For the last six weeks my girlfriend has been here with me, now she is back in San Diego. A good reason for a sleepless night? Actually, thinking of work. How boring, you could say, but not if you think about that I am working in science. The bad (and also good) thing about this line of work: it eats you alive, you can think about the story you are working on 24/7. It never stops being interesting. And there is always the hope it might lead to something really useful. Something like: Find the key factor in cancer, the "magic vulnerability". Off note, all current science points to the fact this might not exist. Every cancer we look at is different, and will probably need its unique treatment.
Every time science comes up with something novel, exciting and hopeful, in clinical trials it does not work that well. Last keywords: angiogenesis inhibitors, Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (some of which actually do work very well, but they do not cure, just keep growth of cells  in check-> Gleevec, the blockbuster drug for CML, chronic myeloid leukemia).
My current new favorite toy/focus of interest: "Histone Chaperones" These are factors which regulate chromatin, which is the form how our DNA is packaged, and plays a critical role in how genes are turned on and off. And those Histone chaperones regulate the incorporation of histone variants into regions  of  chromatin, thereby regulating whole genomic regions, rather than individual genes. Unfortunately, I do not see, how these factors will be "Druggable". But now I do feel tired. Goodnight. Sorry, not a very revealing entry.

7th Birthday

Midnight. I have officially entered the 8th year post surgery. Last MRI was in August 2011 (see last entry)
No cake, unfortunately nobody here with me to celebrate, my girlfriend Hui still living in San Diego. Me being here in Hamburg. No complaints however, I chose my way and I realize, this is an enormous privilege to have, being alive and being able to choose a way.

Ok now more insights another time, I just thought the occasion asks for an entry.

Take care!
 And : If you are patient reading this, just on thing: If I made it up to here, YOU  CAN BEAT THAT THING TOO!! I am not a miracle-man. Just had a good doctor, and probably a lot of luck. Plus Maybe the right attitude helped too. So: You go ahead and CICK THAT CANCER'S BUTT!!

Testing it was.

Despite of my lengthy considerations at the last entry, I finally decided to have another MRI.

To cut this short to the relevant facts: it came out good!!! "No significant changes since the last examination"

Surprisingly, I did not walk the valley of shadows again (mentally speaking), I stayed relatively cool. Did I just get used to it? Or maybe it was the thought: If it had come back, I would notice from emerging defects: increasing forgetfulness, irritability. But talking about especially about those two potential "symptoms": These are soft markers and everybody with a good amount of hypochondric talent can create those in a minute. That's the general problem with brain-related problems: they are hard-if not impossible- to objectively grab. OK, you can make the usual tests, (Touch the tip of your nose with the right or left index finger) the patients among the readers will of course know them all. I do these from time to time.And I constantly watch out for any unexplained muscle twiching on the left, weakness of the left arm or leg, just anything unusual.
So, you will ask: why did you decide to do it? The answer may sound strange and a bit pathetic:

I wanted to make sure, that my girlfriend, who is still living on the Westcoast, if she would finally move to Germany, that I am in good enough shape that it is worthwhile for her moving in with me. At least from the best of my knowledge.  I know this sounds pretentious, but I swear to God, this was going on in my head. OK, maybe it was just the trigger I put forth for a conflict than needed to be resolved. But as things came out good I am happy I did it. I have to say, despite the fear before the procedure, it DOES feel SO GOOD afterwards, but to get a new setpoint for what it feels like to still be OK, and to have something to compare myself to (set my self -examination to zero). Its all good.

I am still a long-term-survivor: 6.5 years and counting!!!! Old age, here I come!!!

Testing or not testing?

Sorry for me being quiet lately. Just not much novelties to report. This is an entry about trying to decide on a question  only a long-term survivor can have the luxury to ponder. I had my last MRI a year ago. actually, more than a year ago. November 2009 to be exact. Now its February 2011. The big question in my mind is: am I neglecting my disease by not getting examined? The issues coming to mind: MRI imaging is not a treatment, it will give me a heads up, should something come back. But then. Something coming back. inevitably means: bad prognosis. Recurring Glioma is pretty much a death sentence. Well, technically, Glioma is a death sentence. And so far I beat it. Here my question: what would I do, if an MRI would show, it came back? Have another surgery? I was incredible lucky to have such a devoted and talented surgeon like Dr Liau at UCLA. My life is almost normal, I am doing science (actually: just writing a paper) again and everything looking as good as one could imagine. Another surgery almost certainly would mean serious defects from the removal of additional brain tissue. Would I do it? Thank God this is a hypothetical question. Many would say: you are cured, you beat it for good, you can relax now and move on with your life. But if there are others in my situation, you may know what I am talking about: Being diagnosed with malignant cancer once and for all destroys this primordial trust in ones body. I am still scared to consider myself "healed". As if there was some magical bad spell in letting the guards dow. I WANT to stay aware, that bad things may happen again anytime. Just hoping that this awareness may be a magic to keep IT away.
I keep on drinking my magic Amazon tea "Cha Una de Gato". But I will not do an MRI anymore. It doesn't help, since even a good result does not mean it will last. I will just have faith&trust that I will live  and not die from brain tumor anymore.

Maybe I should write a book about my time with incurable cancer. Diagnosis December 2004 Surgery February 2005, now february 2011, "rebirth-day" is only three days away (Feb 7th 2005) my "second birthday". Six years. And I was told: "a year, maybe a year and a half"
People out there, I am still here! Maybe I made it long enough to call myself "cured", but I am still afraid. And will be so forever. A price I am happy to pay for being still here. Life is too wonderful a gift, to not accept a price for it.

Short notice

OK I realize, in order to keep this a hopeful site, I need to provide a sign of life once in a while: Actually, I was busy watching the world cup, settling into Hamburg, getting my projects off the ground (The latter two being on the slow side). But health-wise I am still fine, apart from the usual attacks of hypochondria: I realize I am impatient and can get rather angry, which I think did not happen so much in the past. And of course the over-sensitized brain-cancer-survivor -brain (haha) transforms this into possible early signs of tumor recurrence. OK. I honestly DO NOT BELIEVE, this is actually the case. But, to tell you the truth, It has crossed my mind. I ride my bike to work every day, take my anti-seizure meds, drink my green  and my Una de Gato -teas, fight with concentration problems, live with my occasional forgetfulness. Overall not bad for a guy with a gulfball-size piece of brain tissue missing, no?
only so much :

I AM STILL HERE!!!