John has asked me to keep everyone here informed of his progress. So here’s the latest.
Firstly, everyone please visit John’s homepage, www.majhor.com, and make a donation to the John Majhor Cancer Fund. His bills are piling up. Every donation helps, no matter how small. We’d want folks to do the same for us. So please, lend a hand.
I spoke with John last Thursday. The day before (Oct. 24th), he underwent scheduled Gamma Knife radiation surgery at the University of Minnesota.
Some background first.
John’s cancer has spread throughout his body, including his brain. There is little that can be done, surgically – as his oncologist told him, “If you can’t get it all, it doesn’t make sense to try to get any of it.”
That doesn’t mean John hasn’t been receiving treatment. There are three lesions (tumors) in his brain that he and his docs are hoping to eliminate, at best. At minimum, arrest their growth. The idea is for John to remain his usual bright, perky and cognizant self for as long as possible.
To this end, John’s been undergoing radiation and drug treatment for about the last six weeks. The drug is Tarceva (erlontinib), which some of you who know folks with cancer may have heard of. All of this was in preparation for last Wednesday’s Gamma Knife surgery.
Essentially, what Gamma Knife surgery is, is an outpatient procedure wherein highly-targeted radiation is delivered to the brain lesions in hopes of killing them. They screw a high-tech metal bowl, pierced with holes, onto your head, which is used as an aiming guide when they zap the lesions.
John arrived in the morning and first underwent another MRI so the docs could have a recent shot of where the lesions were, and how they may have changed. He then had the aiming device screwed into his skull (ouch), and then waited for about six hours until it was his turn for the procedure. When it was over, they removed the bowl and he went home.
That night, John sent me an e-mail, wherein he said of the procedure: “Truthfully, despite the fact that it was excruciatingly painful, boring and took 10 hours for a 30-minute procedure, I seem to have come through the other side feeling remarkably well.” The “excruciatingly painful” reference concerns the screws into the skull. Those who have enjoyed this process say you can hear the screws going in, since the skull acts as a sound conductor. Delightful!
We won’t know for another three weeks what success, if any, there has been. At that point, John and his docs will have a better idea of what his prognosis is, time-wise.
John also has stopped taking the Tarceva. It was making it near impossible for him to hold down food – he’s lost over 40 pounds as a result. Last time we talked, he said he was able to eat again, which is good news. Both the radiation and the Tarceva remain in the system for some weeks after stopping the treatment, so they’re still working on the cancer.
I’ll keep everyone here posted on further news. In the meantime, you can read John’s treatment blog on his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/majhor.
If you do nothing else, send John a note and let him know you’re thinking about him.
Thanks, everyone…
Chris
Firstly, everyone please visit John’s homepage, www.majhor.com, and make a donation to the John Majhor Cancer Fund. His bills are piling up. Every donation helps, no matter how small. We’d want folks to do the same for us. So please, lend a hand.
I spoke with John last Thursday. The day before (Oct. 24th), he underwent scheduled Gamma Knife radiation surgery at the University of Minnesota.
Some background first.
John’s cancer has spread throughout his body, including his brain. There is little that can be done, surgically – as his oncologist told him, “If you can’t get it all, it doesn’t make sense to try to get any of it.”
That doesn’t mean John hasn’t been receiving treatment. There are three lesions (tumors) in his brain that he and his docs are hoping to eliminate, at best. At minimum, arrest their growth. The idea is for John to remain his usual bright, perky and cognizant self for as long as possible.
To this end, John’s been undergoing radiation and drug treatment for about the last six weeks. The drug is Tarceva (erlontinib), which some of you who know folks with cancer may have heard of. All of this was in preparation for last Wednesday’s Gamma Knife surgery.
Essentially, what Gamma Knife surgery is, is an outpatient procedure wherein highly-targeted radiation is delivered to the brain lesions in hopes of killing them. They screw a high-tech metal bowl, pierced with holes, onto your head, which is used as an aiming guide when they zap the lesions.
John arrived in the morning and first underwent another MRI so the docs could have a recent shot of where the lesions were, and how they may have changed. He then had the aiming device screwed into his skull (ouch), and then waited for about six hours until it was his turn for the procedure. When it was over, they removed the bowl and he went home.
That night, John sent me an e-mail, wherein he said of the procedure: “Truthfully, despite the fact that it was excruciatingly painful, boring and took 10 hours for a 30-minute procedure, I seem to have come through the other side feeling remarkably well.” The “excruciatingly painful” reference concerns the screws into the skull. Those who have enjoyed this process say you can hear the screws going in, since the skull acts as a sound conductor. Delightful!
We won’t know for another three weeks what success, if any, there has been. At that point, John and his docs will have a better idea of what his prognosis is, time-wise.
John also has stopped taking the Tarceva. It was making it near impossible for him to hold down food – he’s lost over 40 pounds as a result. Last time we talked, he said he was able to eat again, which is good news. Both the radiation and the Tarceva remain in the system for some weeks after stopping the treatment, so they’re still working on the cancer.
I’ll keep everyone here posted on further news. In the meantime, you can read John’s treatment blog on his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/majhor.
If you do nothing else, send John a note and let him know you’re thinking about him.
Thanks, everyone…
Chris