On February 16th of 2004, my cancer treatment began suddenly, and very unexpectedly. Looking back, I can see some things that occurred - headaches, nausea, occasional tiredness - that just didn't make me think of cancer. I attributed it to not enough water, too much exercise, but never cancer.

A seizure at work was followed by two more in the emergency room. I was admitted to the ICU, and after a week as an inpatient, undergoing a thoracotomy/biopsy, I was told I had a stage 4 lung tumor, which had metastisized 3 tumors to my brain. The medical term for my cancer is adenocarcinaoma, a type of non-small cell lung cancer.

I was told that there was no cure for my cancer, but that pallative care would help me . St. Anthony's began treating me with whole brain radiation. My regimen was 5 days a week, for 3 weeks. It was hard on me, and seemed to take all my energy. But I made it through! I was told that chemotherapy was the next treatment. At this point, with the urging of family and friends, I went to the Siteman Center/Barnes hospital for a second opinion.

That decision changed everything, and gave me new hope! They told me of new options, and gave me a much more positive prognosis! So here we are, on Friday, June 18th 2004, and I just finished my 4th round of chemotherapy. I did pretty good! I recommend talking to your doctor regarding Lorazepam, because it made my nausea much more bearable.

Another procedure I became a candidate for was Gamma Knife radiation. Gamma Knife is a procedure offered in St. Louis only at the Siteman Center! It is a form of radiosurgery that can target specific sites with a dose of radiation 25x stronger than normal radiation dosage. The goal is to destroy the tumors, completely! It's worked for me, my 1st time through was on June 25th 2004.